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:
The government should have stepped in as soon as the they saw what was happening in Germany during the 1930's. It would be one thing if America didn't know what was going on in Germany, but they knew exactly what was happening the whole time. America was put in a position where they didn't even need to do much at the time. All they had to do was accept the desperate refugees who wanted needed to find a safe place to stay during the chaos of WW2. And America turned their backs. Many American's even supported the Nazi views, attracting up to 25,000 public supporters in America. And there were anti-semitic preachers who spoke out to up to 3 million people shouting there anger towards the jewish people. The final reason America turned their backs to the jews of Europe was becasue they feared the jews taking American jobs and tainting the American way of life.
The government should have stepped in as soon as the they saw what was happening in Germany during the 1930's. It would be one thing if America didn't know what was going on in Germany, but they knew exactly what was happening the whole time. America was put in a position where they didn't even need to do much at the time. All they had to do was accept the desperate refugees who wanted needed to find a safe place to stay during the chaos of WW2. And America turned their backs. Many American's even supported the Nazi views, attracting up to 25,000 public supporters in America. And there were anti-semitic preachers who spoke out to up to 3 million people shouting there anger towards the jewish people. The final reason America turned their backs to the jews of Europe was becasue they feared the jews taking American jobs and tainting the American way of life.
I think that the American goverment should have become involved in helping the Jews immediately after the Nazis got into power and started to oppress the Jews. This would have been the greatest help possible because the governemnt already knew what they had planned and didnt even take any action. Many factors came in the way that prevented the government from helping the Jews such as the worldwide depression, prejudice and anti-semitism. If the government had solved and gone away from these problems I feel as though the Jews could have been saved. But sadly, we live in a world where people aren't treated as well as others and as though it feels like everything else around them is stopping them and oppressing them. This is exactly how the Jews felt because they were blocked from freedom.
I thought that this documentary was really overwhelming and sad. The Jews presence in Germany disturbed the Nazis, so therefore they did everything in their power to get rid of them. It was even sadder when America would not even help them due to anti-antisemitism. They had no option of getting freedom. A Jewish family tried to flee to the US, but only the children got the immigration visa's; the parents had trouble getting them though. The Nazi's humiliated them by making them clean the streets and citizens just stood by watching. It sickens me that we still live in a world where people still think they can treat others because they believe they are "different".
The United States government should have done something about the anti-Semitism in Germany as soon as news spread throughout the country of the plans and motives of the Nazis party. The sad and rather embarrassing part about the United States’ actions or lack thereof is the fact that even when news spread about the first acts of violence towards the Jews, our government basically used that as an excuse to lay even further back in their chairs. Although the United States was involved in war with Japan when they attacked Pearl Harbor, years passed and the Nazi’s took a more threatening step on the Jewish population. The United States was aware of what was happening in Germany when thousands of Jews were trying to get into the united states through immigration and couldn’t because they were not guaranteed visas. The United States should have acted when the first Germans were being denied visas in Germany. I feel that the United States was too caught up in ensuring the safety of its own nation and by doing so they were truly allowing another country perform actions that completely went against the U.S’s guidelines of a democracy.
I was very shocked and dissapointed while watching this film. I was terrified to find out how the US gov. did not react to the holocaust at the time. It was one thing to see all of this happening in germany but to see it happen in the US was a whole different story!!! I was horrifiied to find out that there was so much anti-semitism in america at the time. It makes me angry to think that anti-semitism still exists in the world today.
After watching this film, The United States goverment should have stepped in as soon as they heard about all that was going on in Germany. Its very sad to think that our country could have just stood by and watched while all these awful things happend to the jewish people. Along with the United States not doing anything, when some of the jewish people imigrated to America they were restricted from jobs. They were also given designated areas to practice their jobs, for example jewish hospitals were made so they didn't have the same hospitals as everyone else.
I found it shocking that the American government didn't step in as soon as they found out what was happening in Germany. America was supposed to be a "melting pot" country, meaning a home for diversity and them turning their backs on the Jews in their time of need seemed to be against everything that the government's creators had intended the country to be. I was even more surprised to learn that many Americans became supporters of what the Nazis had begun and began to discriminate against the Jews. In school, we always learn about how certain things were segregated in America for the African Americans, but I never knew that the same exact situation occurred with the Jewish people who tried to escape Germany. I see how the Americans may have been upset about the Jewish immigrants taking their jobs, but I feel that it is more important for a country to be moral and assist people who need it rather than be selfish and focus on their own lives instead. As the video stated, the only difference between the state of Germany and America was that the people of America were able to speak out about the conditions. I hope that nothing like this would happen again, now that the American government has become more involved in helping other countries in their time of need. Sadly, American at this time was merely a bystander to the biggest bully known to the world.
I think the government shouldve gotten involved from the beginning. I think they should have stopped the nazis from hurting and killing all the people they did. The government should have joined the war earlier and shut down the concentration camps. They were all afraid of another world war so they didnt want to come to america because they thought it would cause an upset germany.
After watching "America and the Holocaust" it made me realize what the American government could've done to help the Jewish people suffering in Germany. In my opinion, I think that America should've gotten involved from the beginning of the Jewish oppression. I think that America had reservations about standing up to Germany because the fear of another World War I was present. Also, Hitler had a lot of followers in different countries that would cause tensions with multiple different countries. The antisemitism in America also prevented them from taking immediate action in saving the Jews from their suffering in Germany.
To be honest, Im not quite sure when the government "should" have involved themselves. I dont feel comfortable answering, because i dont feel as if there is any right answer. I do believe, however, that we answered when we did, because most Americans were reluctant in joining. we dragged our feets hoping we would not have to become involved. and we would have probably stood idly by if we were not directly attacked. the factors that prevented us from helping jews was the "switerland factor". we wanted to remain neutral in order to not choose definite sides that would get us into another war.
After viewing "America and the Holocaust" I am disgusted. I was not aware of how aware the American government and people were about what was happening to the Jews in Nazi Germany. I was appalled when I watched America stand at the side lines and refuse to get involved. The US government had a chance to save millions of Jewish lives but instead they focused on selfish needs and anti-sematism instead. Something that particularly stood out to me was that the US denied taking in Jewish children who were threatened by Nazi Germany but later took non-Jewish children in countries affected by the war. A quote that I heard in this video was "...The Jew's position in Germany is not life threatening." The US people were ignorant and selfish and refused to do anything about the Holocaust that was unfolding around them.
During the Nazi regime, the US took a very passive stance. They should have stepped in once they knew about the type of persecution the Jews were facing in Europe. Instead, they made efforts to not allow the Jewish people to immigrate to America. Even though the public policy at the time wasn't to discriminate against Jews, many Americans covertly showed prejudice, such as by not hiring Jews. They had the same feelings that some Europeans did, like the Jews would take their jobs and were money hungry. I was surprised to hear about so many countries that were either prejudiced or sympathetic to the Nazis.
During the Nazi era, Americans were the perfect example of a by-stander. They were well aware of what was going on in Nazi Germany, of the millions of Jewish people being opressed. However, they chose to not take a big action in helping. Yes, many Americans did partake in riots and protesting against what the Nazis were doing, but nothing was ever done about this. Instead, they made the immigration laws extremely strict, and made it very difficult for Jewish refugees to enter America. Americans were being extremely selfish and thinking only for their own goods. They believed that if more people entered into America, they would take their jobs. They did not aquire the knowledge however, that a largely populated nation could create more job oppoutunities. Most Americans, not all, were the perfect example of selfish and ignorant bystanders.
Being an American, I always want to see the best of our country. Unfortunately, the United States wasn't always the great nation we wanted it to be. I knew the U.S felt it necessary early on to avoid war with Germany and, as a result, when the war started, it was reluctant to join. What I didn't know was that antisemitic and anti-immigrant feelings was rampant throughout the nation which was easily seen in the strict immigration laws. I thought that the U.S would be understanding about Jewish refugees needing to escape oppression from Nazi rule but it seems that the American people were just as selfish as everyone else in the world.
The U.S should have become involved as soon as they saw what was happening to the Jews in Germany. As the video discussed, everyone around the world knw what was happening in Nazi Germany and instead of providing aid to the Jews, the U.S turned their backs, which only added fuel to the Nazi's fire. The U.S was a bystander for so long and I was embarrassed to see just how little the U.S initially did to help. If the U.S had interviened or at least provided an escape for Jews, thousands of Jews would have been able to leave Nazi Germany. I believe that it was easier for the U.S to ignor the problem rather than try to intervene and the U.S chose the easy way rather than the right way when the Nazis came to power.
I was absent for this class
I was absent this class.
Americans turned their backs on the Jews even when they knew what was happening to them in Germany. They were afraid that the Jews would take jobs from Americans. They made it almost impossible to immigrate during this time. They also limited the amount of children that were able to cross over which I felt was awful and their reasons for it were unjustified. Their belief that they would grow into "ugly adults" was based purely in prejudices. Adopting the nazi's anti-semitism made the American actions just as bad as the nazi's. They should have started to help immediately when they found out what was going on. They should have accepted immigrants right away as America is a country of immigrants and (almost) every single citizen is an immigrant so there was really no reason to not accept them.
After watching this I was disappointed that the government didn't take me action to try and stop this. In order to step in, they wouldn't have had to do a whole lot. They would have just needed to lay down the law abut what it right and what is wrong. I thought it was sad how some of them even sided with the Nazis. I think they feared what would happen if they did stick up for jews.
The U.S. government should have interrupted the Nazis murdering of the Jewish population immediately after hearing of this horrific event. I believe the best things the United States could have done was to allow Jewish refuges into special center in the united states that would allow simple living until the Nazis were taken over after the war. Clearly American citizens were halting the allowance of Jewish refugees into the country. American opinion was that the influx of population would create more competition for jobs as well as cram more people into the country taking away land. The president would not allow for legislation to pass since he wanted to protect his own interest and not upset the citizens that would vote for him. Overall this film had a very depressing and serious attitude.
This film made me angry. I didnt watch much of it considering i missed a class and half of the other. But by watching some of it, i understood what was going on. I thought that America was better than that. Instead of helping out during the Holocaust and doing something about it, we just sat back and went along with it. It also led us into beleieving that the Jews were less than us also. I dont understand how one man can make two countries believe his crazy beliefs of how Christians are better than Jews.
After watching this failm i understand a lot more about the government but i also leanred a lot about how they can deal with issues a lot differently. I think the us government should've got involved sooner then they did but the reason I think they did was because they didn't want to go to war with Germany like France and Poland did especially cause WW1 just ended . As well, there were groups of Americans that agreed with hitler and what he was doing which impacted the americans movemnt in a veyr negative way. Hitler almost stopped the americans from traveling and they were held under his own will.
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