Genocide of Jewish people and others WW2 #6: The Holocaust Genocide of Jewish people and others
Holocaust Victim What was your victim’s family and early life like? How did things change for him/her in the 1930s? How did things change for him in the 1940s? How does their story end?
“Never again” 6 million Jews are murdered 5 million others are murdered: Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, disabled, communists, resisters “Never again”
What did US do? 1938: Global meeting on what to do with refugees / 5 countries accepted some US had quotas –
1939, 83% of Americans opposed accepting more refugees Why did US oppose refugees? Economic reasons – Great D Anti-Semitism State Dept made it difficult for Jewish ppl to immigrate Henry Ford, Father Coughlin US does accept 200,000 Albert Einstein Denies Anne Frank’s family
St. Louis 1939: 900+ Jewish ppl flee Europe on a boat, come to Cuba, denied, go to US, denied Accepted by W. Eur – 2/3 die
What did US know?
New York Times Nov. 25, 1942 Says 2 million Jews had already died
What can be done? Accept Jewish kids? Expand immigration? Bomb railways leading to concentration camps? 1944: War Refugee Board “Rescue and relief” of Jewish ppl & others
When one concentration camp was liberated, Allies found 800,000 pairs of shoes
Syrian Refugees Today
Did the US do enough?