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?
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This movie was particularly disturbing for me. We've watched how the Nazis treated the Jewish people and how other countries refused to help, but I never even imagined descrimination against Jews in America. Our history textbooks don't even mention the descrimination in our own nation! Society talks about how horribly the Jewish people were treated and how they wish they could do something, but the same thing was happening around them. This movie is so important because it shows how quickly this thought process (racial descrimination) spreads around the world to all different people.
Watching this film was really sad to realize how families were torn apart. People who thought they were going to get out realized they were stuck. The government never did anything to help but only hurt them. One after another countries stopped allowing Jews into their countries, even America. The government should have done more to help after hearing how many people died daily and what Hitler was doing to them.
I found this movie a little disturbing. I cannot believe that so many countries denied access of Jews with anti-Semitic intentions. I also found the film of the beginning of the haulocaust disturbing as well. I don't understand why countries knew the Jews of Europe were in trouble, yet no one did anything to help. In fact, they purposely made it harder for them to enter for refuge. Everyone in this world needs to start thinking more about others and not just themselves.
After watching most of this film, I felt bad for the Jewish refugees due to their situation. I think it was awful for the countries to limit the number of refugees considering the fact that if they didn’t allow them in, those individuals will probably die. Also at the same time, it is hard to let in so many people into a country especially if that country is also going through a rough time period. I think there could have been more of an efficient way to allow refugees to come into a country for safety, particularly the United States. I think that that many factors to not allow the Jewish to immigrate to a country was the country’s standings primarily. If that country was not in a good economic place, more immigrants can often make it worse. Although these factors are reasonable to not allow that many immigrants in, the fact that the Jewish population was decreasing rapidly should maybe have allowed for exception.
After watching this film, I really gained a new perspective of America's attitude toward the Jewish people during the Holocaust. The U.S. government did very little to prevent the genocide in Germany before the war, and at one point blocked any information of the genocide to U.S. citizens. The U.S. government also allowed industries such as the automotive industry to exclude Jews from the workforce even if they lived in the U.S. prior to the time of mass immigration of the Jews from Germany. Once rumors of the Nazi's killing the Jews were brought to the U.S., the U.S. government continued to prevent Jews from immigrating into the U.S. in any legal way possible, and they created new laws in order to have an easier time to prevent them from coming into the U.S.
I am greatly disturbed with the fact that America closed its doors to thousands of Jewish people during the Nazi uprising. During this time period, there were many Americans who didn't like Jews, American or not. Its very sad that the country couldn't have come together and realize what was going on was wrong. Instead American politicians were scared of losing votes so initially ignored the Jewish cries of help. Some politicians even made it harder for Jews to get into the country. It wasn't until a million or so people were dead that they began to agree to help. The lack of support by the American government and others alike for Jewish people contributed to the number killed because they refused them at their gates.
I was not in class today.
This film taught me a lot about American history during the Holocaust and how American shut out all help to the Jewish people. American showed their cold shoulder to immigrants. There are many things that I learned about Americans mind set and views on the issues in Germany. This film showed me that America didn't even take action untill they had heard about the millions of people that have been killed. This was suprising to hear and watch because I had never seen a whole country shut away people who are desperate.
I learned a lot from this film and I am glad that I could watch it. I had always thought that it was just nations in Europe that had neglected and that had been anti-Semitic toward the Jews. After watching, I learned that the United States of America were also extremely anti-semetic towards the Jews and I found it embarrassing how far they would go to keep Jews out of the country. It was shocking to me that Jews were excluded from getting certain jobs and entering certain places simply because they were Jewish. I'm glad that I learned how my own country neglected a race of people who needed desperate help.
I was very disturbed when watching this movie. We had seen how the Jews were treated and Germany and how the discrimination for Jews was very prevalent. I never knew however how much discrimination there was for Jews in the United States. I couldn't believe that the citizens in the US were also blaming the Jews for their problems. I found it most disturbing that Jews were trying to get visas and that the US was making stricter regulations so that they couldn't enter which caused many Jews to have to stay I'm Germany.
I was surprised at the fact that the United States actively prevented the saving and protection of Jews. I was a little disappointed by the fact that the State Department stopped all attempts at trying to save Jewish refugees. The American government could have saved hundreds of thousands of Jews and could have bombed the gas chambers at Auschwitz to at least temporarily end the killings. Overall, this movie made me realize that the United States weren't as welcoming as i had thought they were and in reality left millions of Jews to die in Europe.
While watching this movie, I was really surprised at how the U.S didn't help the Jews come to America and escape from getting killed. The U.S did nothing and paid no attention to what would be done to all of those innocent lives. Before watching this film, I thought that America was the county that would've given the most amount of help to the Jews but I was completely wrong. I'm glad I got to this side of America and learn about how the county I live in basically help kill many people.
In my opinion, I think that the United States should have taken action and gotten involved to help people as soon as they knew that people were being killed. I think it is our duty as humans to help other humans whose lives are in danger. The United States should have tried to make an agreement with nazi germany and if they did not agree to stop the ill treatment of innocent people then direct military intervention should have taken place as soon as possible to save lives. I also think that the us should have been more open to immigration. Thousands of lives could have been saved if it had been just a little easier for the Jews to get out of Germany and surrounding countries where their lives were in danger.
Prior to watching this film I knew that many countries didn't bother helping the Jews but I did not know how poorly Americans treated them as well. America even stopped letting Jews in to the country for a period of time. People need to learn from these past events and start caring about other people because everyone deserves equal rights.
I wonder if the United States government had any idea that by putting up their paper wall, they would be subjecting hundreds of Jews to their deaths. If they had let them in to their country, they could have saved so many lives. If the US had wanted to, they could have easily taken in the Jewish refugees trying to survive. I'm not too good with politics so I'm not really sure what the government could have done to help prevent the Holocaust but I do know how wrong it was for a few pieces of paper to decide the fate and mean life or death to an entire faith.
After seeing this film, I was left disturbed by the actions of our country. It seems implausible that so many countries denied access of Jews with anti-Semitic intentions. I would hope that governments, such as our own, would have been able to formulate some easier way for those in danger to emigrate into safer grounds. I can't seem to quite understand why those who were well-aware, of the torment that others faced, did nothing to stop the pain they were being forced to endure. While I was disturbed by this film, I also enjoyed watching it. I was taught new information about the Holocaust while watching this film; information that I don't think I would've known without viewing it.
I think the U.S. should have become involved in letting in Jewish refugees when Jewish Americans began protesting very publicly about the issue. At least then the United State's government at the time wouldn't have seemed as inconsiderate and anti-Semitic. The United States could have simply let the Jews in, maybe restrict their ability to move economically to appeal to the major driving force against their arrival (negative views toward their place in society, and how they make it worse) or something of that nature. I'm really avoiding the complexity of the issue, but still; at least find a way to get them out of Germany, and listen and pay attention to the few Jews in America pleading to help them who are also notifying the government of the atrocities happening in Europe. The complexities that i previously disregarded involving why America couldn't let in refugees included public opposition to Jewish immigration into the country, which was due partly from anti-Semitic views toward the Jewish population. That by the way was the most surprising thing i learned, I couldn't believe that Americans were also hating on the Jews. I doubt i'm the only one who thought we were the good guys coming the rescue of the Jews, turns out, not too many national entities liked them, including the United States, and its general populace.
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