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?
22 comments:
I though that the film granted me a whole new perspective on Americas role with the Jews being ethnically cleansed during the Holocaust and before. America basically paid no attention or focus towards helping these innocent victims who were being exterminated just because of their religion. America put political aspects before humane aspects and its ridiculous to say the least. I really found the film to be extremely informative and interesting.
The US government did not allow many Jews to enter the US. I was surprised to find out about that. Was it because there was alot of anti-semitism? Did people in power secretly not like the Jews? Did it have something to do with the government wanting to 'not get involved?' Did they think since it was happening in Europe, it was not the responsibility of the US? The film gave me some good understanding of what was really happening. My dad was talking about Arizona not letting in Mexicans. I wonder if it was something like that.
I was rather surprised at the fact that the United States actively prevented the saving and protection of Jews. The widespread anti-semitism in the U.S. was a foreign concept to me; ever since I was little, I heard that America was the best country in the world, that it always helped people, and that all other countries, especially Germany, were terrible. Of course, what I didn't know was that the American government intentionally stalled the rescue of refugees and suppressed the information about the Holocaust. I was absolutely disgusted by the fact that the State Department stopped all attempts at trying to save Jewish refugees. It was really too much that FDR was the only one who could really help the Jews, and even when he did, the Board he created was not as successful as it could have been had it been created a few years earlier. The American government could have saved hundreds of thousands more Jews and could have bombed the gas chambers at Auschwitz to at least temporarily end the killings, but instead, they opted to bomb a site 5 miles away from the dying Jews. Overall, this movie thoroughly disgusted me as it showed how the United States left millions of Jews to die by letting political and social issues get in the way of moral goodness.
The government should have started to Jew the Jews the minute they realized how much danger they were in. It disgusted me and made me ashamed to be an American after learning about the bureaucratic maze they created to prevent the Jews from entering the country. They had so many opportunities to do so. It was horrible when they sent the boat filled with passengers that arrived to America back to Europe and when they chose to stop getting reports on what was happening to the Jews for weeks. I feel like anti-Semitism was really big at the time which is just sad. The fact that people chose to brush over the fact that there were innocent human beings being murdered in mass numbers just because of their religion is a big letdown considering America is suppose to be an image of all races and religions and people coming together regardless of who they are. It’s sad that very little did anything to help and that all these laws were placed to prevent people from being able to help or to come into the country. I feel like the government just didn’t want to have to deal with the Jews, that they didn’t want to be held responsible and that the people at the time were selfish and heartless.
I information in this film was, for the most part, all new to me, which is why I found it so shocking. I had no idea about the role that America played in the extermination of the Jews. The had not realized how wide-spread the idea of Antisemitism really was. They way that the Jews were treated completely shocked and repulsed me, making me question everything I had known about America. It was all so unfair and horrible what they had to go through.
While watching the film I had noticed and learned something new, that America did nothing to help the Jews. I had no idea that Americans were this type of people. Before watching this film I've always thought that Americans were the first ones to help the Jews and accept them into the country with no problem, but I thought wrong. They didn't pay any attention to them in any way. The Jewish asked for help and no matter how much they asked the Americans did not want to help them. It's terrible how Americans didn't help Jews when they needed it.
While watching this movie I was horrified by the lack of involvement that the U.S. had in the Holocaust. I was shocked that they didn’t help the Jewish people when they had chances to. They were not lacking in chances and they didn’t choose to act on upon the opportunities that they had. I believe that once the U.S. knew that there was a threat to the Jewish population, they should’ve stepped in to help them. The horrors that went on within Europe during this war to the Jewish people along with other undesirables were atrocious and I wish that some country ‘d had the compassion to step in sooner. It was horrible to know that the deaths of millions could’ve been prevented, but the information that people knew about the death camps and the extermination of Jews was not used to benefit those that could’ve been saved. I believe that the U.S. should’ve accepted any refugees that needed a place to go, loosened their immigration policy, and bombed the gas chambers at the death camps. In addition they should’ve done everything in their power to help those suffering in Europe. I think what did prevent the U.S. from helping was the increased anti-Semitism in the U.S., the idea that this wasn’t the U.S.’s war to fight, and that the U.S. didn’t want to have anymore immigrants to affect the unemployment rate. This lack of interest on the U.S.’s part is just so upsetting.
after watching this film i felt so sorry for the people whoa re just like everyone else but just because they have a diferent religion get such horrible treatment and acted as a scapegoat. the U.S. was so arrogent and i dont understand why they didnt act sooner and more openly/freely. i feel ashamed of the U.S. and there responses to the holucost and war time immagrents.
This movie was at times difficult to watch. The Roosevelt administration and the US as a whole are portrayed in such a negative light it was almost painful for me to watch it. Our country is the greatest on Earth, however we make mistakes, and not being more sympathetic to the Jews was certainly one of them. Once the federal government had confirmed intelligence stating the existence of the death camps, they should have eradicated the camps with a few well-placed air strikes. Especially after popular support was swayed to supporting the Jews, there was no reason for the administration not to help support the enemies of our enemies during the war. This period in our history is very important to remember, so that we can never prevent such a blunder and such a tragedy from happening again.
I enjoy these films because they compliment the things I learn in history class. So I know all about America's relation to the war. I thought it was very interesting that the us dive bombers targeted an oil refinery rather than one of the worst death camps of it's time: auskwitz. Although the target was the refinery, a bomb did hit part of the camp, resulting in the death of prisoners and ss workers. I understand the issue behind joining the war. The us had just come out of a nasty depression. But if Germany could do it, surely the United States could have done it as well. This is what I don't get.
I think this film shows just how america is. Because of the fact that Roosevelt got into the war because of a political reason, shows that america makes their decisions based around political aspects, not moral aspects. I was very dissapointed to find out that america turned their back on the holocaust, and let thosw millions of jews to die. merica did the same thing during the Rwanda massacure. They just turned their backs. It really makes me lose some respect for the contry and i didnt know about this until after the film.
To be honest, this video pissed me off a lot about America. I found it absolutely mind boggling that the American government, the people we rely on to do the right choices, deliverelty made it next to impossible for the Jewish to seek refuge in America. Our country preaches about being land of the free and say give us your weak, your tired and poor, but yet we denied immigration rights I those who were inevitably going to die if they stayed where they were. Our country turned our heads to those facing death and SIDED with hitler on the subject of choosing, accepting anti-semitism into our culture and government. That was so dang stupid and arrogant. All we cared about was ourselves and remained sfish. We didn't want to help them and never tried. This opened my eyes to the kind of country America was and is. This kind thing is still happening today in places like Rwanda and Syria. We act like a great country who accepts all but in reality we're just as bad as everyone else. This video was a huge eye opener for me.
What the American government did is completely predictable and unacceptable, at every point in history, America has hated the major immigration group of the time. the government should have stepped in when they knew the Jews were being killed. What prevented America from helping was a few men's hatred and arrogance. And this were to happen again, I wouldn't be surprised. The people that are in any position of power in the government will do whatever they can to keep the boat from rocking.
This film was a very eye opening one. I for one did not know of any involvement of the U.S> but it shows how many jews the they turned down. Also, when they didn't bomb aushwitz was surprising. They had the perfect chance and did not bomb it. I hope we see more videos like this one.
The way the Americans treated the jews was beyond me. I never knew that they would stoop so low and not help people in need. The jews came to America because they wanted freedom because apparently American is the home of the brave and land of the free. They came here getting the opposite of being free. They got treated so badly and it disgusts me and makes me embarrassed kind of being called an American.
The U.S. government should have stepped in once they were aware of the holocaust/the final solution. Even if they had stepped in when 2,000,000 had died, it'd be too late. America should have allowed in the emigrating Jews. From there, perhaps a program could be constructed to house them and give them work. (After all, WW2 was a big factor in dragging us out of the depression). I'm sure many of the refugees would have participated in the war to free others. The factors that prevented the government from helping the Jewish refugees were anti-semitism, the Depression, the general feeling of apathy in the government.
This film really opened up my eyes to the extent of how poorly Jews were treated during the time of the Holocaust. This film especially shocked me because it talked about anti-Semitism in the United States. This surprised me because I never knew that anti-Semitism actually existed in the United States and that the people of the United States actually protested against bringing Jewish refugees to their country.
I missed the second day of the film, however I still learned a lot from the first day. One fact that was really surprising to me was that 53% of Americans did believe that Jews should be restricted against in America. Jews couldn't get jobs in America and were discriminated against and treated horribly. Prior to watching this documentary I thought that Americans were the good guys who helped out everyone and the less fortunate when really America was a bystander and did not help Jews at all. It embarrassing to be an American and know that Americans did almost nothing to help the Jews. The immigration laws were just another way to stop Jews from coming to America and it's really sad. The Jews just needed someone to help them out and Americans did not do that at all.
I missed the second day of the film, however I still learned a lot from the first day. One fact that was really surprising to me was that 53% of Americans did believe that Jews should be restricted against in America. Jews couldn't get jobs in America and were discriminated against and treated horribly. Prior to watching this documentary I thought that Americans were the good guys who helped out everyone and the less fortunate when really America was a bystander and did not help Jews at all. It embarrassing to be an American and know that Americans did almost nothing to help the Jews. The immigration laws were just another way to stop Jews from coming to America and it's really sad. The Jews just needed someone to help them out and Americans did not do that at all.
Watching this film was difficult at times. I've always thought America was a great country, and still do, but it was embarrassing to learn how The Jews were treated by the US government. In my opinion, the government should've made a move to help the Jews as soon as they became aware that the Jews were in serious danger. Knowing that the President and the State Department were entirely aware that the Jews were being systematically deported and exterminated, but did nothing it appalling. It is even worse to know that the State Department played an active role in preventing the immigration of Jews. I had no idea that the government had behaved this way during the war, so in that respect the film was very informative.
After watching the film I found it extremely interesting that the U.S made it so difficult for Jews to flee to America. At the time and still today the U.S is a place of hope and refugee for most and for the United States to just turn a blind eye isn’t something I was expecting. I think it was because the U.S still had a lot to recover from with World War II and intervening wasn’t something they were ready for as a country. I think they could’ve intervened when they heard about the death camps because at that point the numbers of deaths were tripling and constant. Overall I can see why the U.S out up the paper wall but still feel like they should’ve interacted more.
This film showed just how difficult it was for the Jews to get into America. It also showed how the anti-Semitic feelings that were universal at the time. Before I watched this documentary I thought that Americans were the good guys who helped out everyone and the less fortunate. Unfortunately this film showed that there was a very large fallowing of people that were opposed to allowing large amounts of Jews into the country. It also showed how some of these feelings may have been because of the depression that we were recovering from. But never the less I still found this film disappointing and very informative.
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