Complex social and political factors shaped America's response to the Holocaust, from Kristallnacht in 1938 through the liberation of the death camps in 1945. For a short time, the U.S. had an opportunity to open its doors, but instead erected a "paper wall," a bureaucratic maze that prevented all but a few Jewish refugees from entering the country. When do you think the government should have become involved in helping the Jews and what should it have done? What were the factors that prevented the government from helping Jewish refugees enter the country?
23 comments:
I believe that the country should have become involved in helping Jewish refugees as soon as they realized the horrific things that were being done to them. They should have opened to country to them and helped and accepted them. This is easy to say now because the threat of Nazi Germany is no longer alive. Giving Jewishpeople refuge would have been slapping Germany in the face. the American government was worried about becoming a target of Germany which is understandable because they were looking out for the well-being of the U.S citizens. It comes down to a risk but when human lives are being lost in the way that they were during WWII it should have been a no braniner and we should have been involved earlier.
I believe that the government should have stepped in right from the beginning of all of this. They should have had many boats coming and going to specifically get jewish people out of europe. The U.S. should have been there for them in their time of need. It's understandable that they didn't want people to look down upon them for bringing them in but there is a line where people need help from others. The U.S. should have stepped up to help stop Hitler and his insanity to help the jewish people survive.
The government should have become involved in helping the Jews as soon as a political party baed on antisemitism came in power. A political party based on hatred of one group was not going to go well. America should have definitely stepped in when Jews were having to flee. The factors stoping the Jewish refugees from entering the country were things including the antisemitism in America, the law only allowing a certain number of immigrants in a year, and the president that took no action. Looking at the horrible things that happened in Germany, makes me upset America was a bystander in the beginning.
I think that it was amazing that germany did not allow it's citizens out of the country after 1939. The americans tried to get as many jews put asbpossible but fermany make its citizens get numerous visas. The american people necer tried to further help the jewish people and they acted as the bystanderds. Hitler was a crazy man and should be ashamed for his propaganda tactics that he used on the german citizens.
I think the United States government along with many other countries who were actually practicing anti-semitism should have been more willing to atleast help the Jewish people still in Germany. Over the years, the United States has been a country that has helped countries in war or genocide and is also labeled as the country that is willing to accept immigrants and different types of etnicities. But on the other hand, war was at stake and its hard to say it was the best interest of the U.S. to take control of a situation based on propaganda and unfavorable according to the american society at the time.
I think the US should've stepped in immediately. They should've helped place the orphaned children that came into the country. They were able to do it for the British children, so the needy German Jews should've been given equal children. The US government did many things to prevent Germans from entering. They made immigrants get all sorts of permits. They also had to wait, in some cases many years, to have their cases looked at by the American government. They made it nearly impossible for the Jews to escape in the years before immigration was halted.
I strongly believe the US should have steppedin as soon as they found out what was going on. They should have helped the jews were unable to escape theconcentration camps until immigration was allowed. And even when they immigrated to th US we as Americans treated them like secondclass citizens. They weren't hired for certainjobs, couldn't go to certain places all becaue they were jewish. I noticed the parallel between ho Americanss treated thejews to how they treated the blacks back in the 50's and 60's and esp. during the years of slavery, way back during the civil war. I really believe everyone in this world should be treated equally nomatter what, unless they have commited serious crimes.
Looking back today, I find it difficult to understand why the U.S did not accept Jews, especially if they were trying to escape Hitler. Had the U.S allowed their emigration, millions of lives could have been saved. I would like to think that the U.S would regret this decision, but we will never know for sure. We acted as a bystander prior to WWII, but part of me believes that we did not anticipate Hitler to gain so much power. However, Rebecca made a good point in saying that the U.S accepted British and other European immigrants... Why they refused so many Jews is a mystery to me.
I do not understand why the US did not accept Jews. It seems kind of hypocritical of us because didn't we establish this country on the grounds of "all men are created equal"? I think as soon as the US discovered what was going on in Nazi Germany, they should have let anyone who was willing to pay the steamship fee over. It doesn't make sense that they would only allow certain Jews but not others, and it is very shady how they slowly made the process of entering more and more difficult. The US may not have been actually murdering the Jews, but they stood by and allowed it to happen.
What I learned from the movie that I didn't know before was the hardship that some jews went through when they know they had to leave Germany and some could leave. Families were separated and had to send their children over before they could go. Also that America was a bystander for what was going on and some Americans would start to segregate the jews.
This film showed me how Jews were treated. I never knew from my regular history class how they were. This film made me think about it differently no one should be treated that way. This made me more interested in this film.
I found it very surprising how strict the immigration laws were against jews not only in the US but also in other countries such as England. It seemed to me that the Nazi discrimination against jews was almost contagious as people in the US began to discriminate against jews as well. There were a number of Nazis in the US at the time as well. I always thought that the jewish people didn't leave Europe because they didn't want to leave their homes but this film changed my perspective on this. The US should have adjusted their immigration laws so that there could be a safe haven for jews in Europe.
I believe the government should have aided the Jews right when they discovered the abhorrent things being done to them. The government should have taken all necessary paths to helping the jewish refugees. Also, the US citizens should have realized that it was a matter of life and death for the jews. Therefore, they had no right to discriminate against the refugees because they might take some jobs. What appalled me is that a Nazi party formed in the US. The government should have dismantled this party as soon as it started. Although the US had a large effect in ending World War Two, they should have intervened much earlier.
I believe the government should have intervened right when they heard about all the horrific things Germans were doing to Jews. They should have stepped in as soon as they could because the Jews were in danger and were risking their lives everyday. The U.S. should have found ways to accept the Jews into our country. I think a few factors that affected the U.S. from stepping up and helping the Jews was that at the time, Germany was becoming more and more powerful and they may have been afraid of what they would have done if they found out we were helping Jews. I think we should have helped the Jews considering we were a very powerful country and could have helped save millions of people.
I personally believe that it was a shame for America to be a bystander in this situation. They seemed to be afraid of Hitler's power because they refused to be involved. It scared me to learn about how much power Hitler is gaining at this point and all of the followers that he has. In this severe case, the U.S should have stepped in because of how much the Jews were suffering. Although we didn't see too much on the detention camps, I can already tell that the Jews went through hell which was most definitely not deserved.
This was yet another film that I've watched in this class that has shown me the deceit that exist in history. Previously I had had some knowledge about how Jews were restricted from immigrating to the United States. I had heard of the story where immigrants were trapped at sea in the harbor for days, some even tried to jump off and sneak into the country. It is truly amazing how hard it is for there to be a hero in this situation. It is no wonder the Nazis were able to rise to power; the whole world stared and watched, without lifting a finger before it got out of control. Just goes to show that everything is not exactly how it seems
When watching the film it amazed me how immigration laws were strictly enforced. As I watched the innocent Jewish people be controlled by Hitler I wish we had stepped in the moment we had heard of this. I felt that Hitler's presence was so overplayed and thought highly of by all the people. Through this film I learned not only more about the law development in the US but also some events that went on during that period that I had not know even being a senior in high school. If the US did step in I feel that they should have taken charge in somehow finding a new ruler for Germany. Unfortunately I feel the US was at a disadvantage with how many levels of power there were surrounding Hitler.
I believe that the US government should have stepped in and helped the Jewish people of Germany immediately. I think one reason why we didn't step in was because we didn't know how fast the Nazi situation would escalate. We practically closed the country to the Jewish immigrants because we thought a large quantity of these immigrants would take jobs away from hard working Americans. Once we knew what was really going on in Germany the borders had completely closed and any Jewish people still there were trapped. I think if the US government had acted more quickly there could have been a different outcome for many German-Jewish familes
I think the U.S. Government stepped in at an appropriate and reasonable time. However I also believe that they should have passed the refugee status for all Jews in Europe. This would have been the righteous thing to do. They could be integrated into American Jewish communities whom I believe would have been more than happy to endorse and support these families. And eventually they should have been allowed to either return to Germany, set up in Israel, or go through the naturalization process as any other immigrant has to. The United States was justified in their initial rejection of Jews due to the harsh times. But it must also be taken into consideration that this is America. As a world power, it is always our responsibility to stand up for and protect human rights. Otherwise, we become bystanders allowing such terrible acts to occur. Hitler was allowed to continue his holocaust. The world showed that it was alright to do this when International powers did not immediately intervene.
It was surprising how the Untied States didn't let the Jews in to the country when they badly needed to escape. I think that they should have allowed them to migrate to America once the death camps were put into place. By not doing anything to help the Jews and not letting them enter the country, the US neglected to provide support. I believe that the U.S. Entered the war at the right time but could have done more to help the attempts of the fleeing Jews. A reason for which they did not provide support seems to be that the country and it's citizens wanted to maintain the "pure America".
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I think the U.S. government should have set up a system in which, even if it wasnt for them to become citizens, but give them temporary refugee status until the war is over. The problem with this is, if you say that to someone you have to say yes to everyone and these people have no jobs in america, they have no money, they have no houses and with germany sure to declare war on us after taking that action i think it may have been decided that the fastest way to help them was to wait and not have germany lock down, crash americas economy, germany declare war on america and eventually have america lose the war. So it came down to saving a lot of people early on or setting america up to win the war and save the majority of jewish people and the world from nazi domination.
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