1. Jewish Refugees
US History

2. “Dear Abby” How to teach our children about the Holocaust?
“Wait until the children are old enough to understand the massacres of six million Jews…….
And tell our children about the fact that the whole world was silent.”

3. hostility to or prejudice against Jews.
What is Anti-Semitism ?
hostility to or prejudice against Jews.

4. Write this down Hitler came to power in 1933
Jewish population in the US was 4.5 million
Samuel Dickenson created a plan to admit all German Jews related to Jewish-Americans into the country

5. Write this down Plan was refused by the American Jewish Congress
Rabbi Stephen Wise – President of the Congress
“Jews in this country should be loyal Americans”
“Americans first, last, and all the time”

6. Why?
The United States was Anti- Semitic

8. Write this down 1938 – Kristallnaccht (“night of broken glass”)
Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew, shot and killed a member of the German staff 
In retaliation, Hitler created a “rise in bloody vengeance against the Jews”

12. Write this down
“members of the SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jews, broke into and wrecked Jewish homes, and brutalized Jewish women and children”
91 Jews killed
30,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps

14. Did the US know what was happening?

15. Write this down
FDR was asked to transfer victims of Kristallnacht to the United States
“I have given great thought to that……and the time is not ripe for that.”
77 percent of Americans opposed Jewish immigration to the United States

17. Write this down Wagner-Rodgers Bill – 1939
A bill created to allow 20,000 refugee children from Germany to be allowed in the United States over 2 years
Private money – no public money

18. Write this down Eleanor Roosevelt
“I really want to approve passage of the Child Refugee Bill”
FDR responds, “It is alright for you to support bill……..”

19. Write this down
After coming home from vacation FDR was asked to sign the Child Refugee Bill
“File, no action. FDR”
66% of Americans did not support taking Jewish children

20. Write this down 1939 – 907 German Jewish refugees rescued themselves
May 13th - Boarded the steamship St. Louis and sailed from Germany to Cuba
Cuba refused them – tore up their visas

22. Write this down “Saddest ship afloat in the world”
Circled between Florida and Cuba waiting for help

23. Letter published to the world…..
“We appeal to the world Jewry. We are being sent back. How can you be so peaceful? How can you be silent? HELP! Do everything you can! Some on the ship have committed suicide. HELP! Do not allow the ship to go back to Germany!

24. Write this down
The passengers on the boat telegraphed FDR asking for help
He ignored them
June 6th - Every passenger was forced to go back to Europe and they were captured by Nazi soldiers

26. Write this down September 1939 – Germany invaded Poland
Started to implement the “Final Solution in Europe”
Americans doubted the “Final Solution” was real – Myth
Americans did nothing…..

27. Write this down Riegner Report, August 1942
Told the United States that Hitler was planning to deport and execute millions of Jews in Europe
Americans can no longer doubt the extermination of the Jewish people

28. Write this down American Jewish Congress asked to meet with FDR
3 months on the waiting list
One million Jews died
December, 1942 Rabbi Wise met with FDR to discuss the Final Solution

29. Write this down “We can only rescue through complete victory at war”
FDR will offer no assistance to the Jewish people in Europe – only work to defeat the German army

30. Write this down Henry Morgenthau January 1944 - War Refugee Board
“designed to recuse and transport victims of oppression to temporary refuge during the war”

31. Write this down
FDR agreed to create one camp in Oswego, New York for 1,000 refugees representing different European groups
June Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter
12,000 killed per day in Auschwitz

32. Ruth Gruber

37. Write this down 1946, after the war the camp was closed
40 percent returned the Europe
60 percent wanted to stay in the United States
United States allowed most of the refugees to stay in the United States to become permanent citizens

38. Write this down Jewish Refugees: 1 camp 1,000 people
German Prisoners of War:
70 camps
425,000 people

39. Write this down June, 1945 – US defeated Germany in Europe
“Rescue through victory”
Started to liberate concentration camps in Germany
Dachau

40. Write this down
Japanese American soldiers liberated the Jews in Dachau
Japanese American trying prove their loyalty in the US army rescue the victims we refused to help