America's+response+to+Holocaust

__ America’s Non-Responsive Actions during the Holocaust __ By Alexis Powers As soon as anyone ever mentions the Holocaust they always seem to think of either Hitler or a massacre of Jews. The Holocaust was a time of when [|Adolf Hitler] suddenly decided the religion of Jews should be exterminated and the very powerful country the [|United States]did very little towards helping them. Nobody really mentions what the United States did towards helping people involved in the Holocaust in a time of horror. There were many things leading up to the [|Holocaust] that caused it and many things after that were the results of it. Even though the Holocaust occurred in an entire different country the United States sought to focus in on their minor problems. There were many problems during this time going on with just the United States, but there most certainly was not a massacre of an entire religion. The Great depression was a period of time in world history where everything was falling apart giving Hitler a great time to try to kill a an entire religion and unwanted people in Europe because of a world-wide distraction. World War Two surfaced after the [|Great Depression], including the Holocaust as one of its main ideas. There was such lack of American effort to help the poor souls during the holocaust and [|President Franklin D. Roosevelt]almost ignored the ongoing situation. Many Newspapers in the United States never mentioned what was occurring in Europe in the time of WWII and that was because the US was so involved with Anti-Semitism. The United States did not try to save Jew’s lives during the Holocaust in Europe, simply because it was not their top priority to save them. The Great Depression was worldwide and occurred as early as 1928 in some countries and lasted until the 1940s. The Great Depression started the Holocaust because Hitler’s Nazi power came into action in 1933. Hitler told his people that he could offer them better jobs and a better economy would develop, ending the Great Depression earlier on because of Hitler’s power. In 1934 [|Germany]’s economy was doing horribly and they were unable to work on their own, Hitler’s actions towards them were the only thing they had to turn to. The United States had their great problems that had to look upon and never even thought to look towards to the holocaust in Europe, during this time. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and he blamed the excesses of big businesses for causing an unstable-like economy. During this time there were massive increases in deficient spending and it was a slow and painful processes. The United States might have had these money problems but they most certainly did not have their people being killed left and right for no reason what so ever. They should have done something while there was still time, instead of trying to apologize later on in life. There was a dramatic, worldwide economic down turn in 1928. Everyone was going through something, but none of them decided to help each other out and thought of nothing to help the Jews. The international trade declined sharply, personal incomes, tax revenues, prices and profits decreased. These reasons should have been the cause to work together with Europe because cities around the world were hit hard and many were truly dependant on the industry. Something should have been done to help each other out instead of focusing on the negatives of only the United States because in order for the US to function properly, the rest of the world needs to be working swiftly as well. In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president of the United States of America and this was just about the middle of the Holocaust timeline. Rescuing Jews from the Holocaust was not one of the US government’s priorities. America was one of the strongest countries at the time of [|WWII] and being the strongest, it would have been the right thing to try and help out the other countries surrounding the US. FDR had authority over visa division and responsible for forming the refugee policy. It is just interesting as to why he delayed the processes of helping them survive, simply because he was in charge of a selfish country. He had high hopes of keeping the United States from becoming inundated by ethnic and political elements with polices. Roosevelt was the President of the United States and whatever he decided to say could manipulate the citizens of America to believe the right thing that should have been to save the people under Hitler’s rule. There were two very large conferences held to try and settle this matter of helping the Jews. The first was the [|Evian Conference] where FDR took the initiative to discuss the problems of Jewish Refugees. It occurred for ten days from July sixth to the fifteenth in 1938 and thirty-two countries were involved, meeting in Evian-Baines, France. Most of the western countries were reluctant towards accepting any Jewish refugees. Over the period of ten days, nothing at all was solved concerning helping the Jews during the holocaust. The [|Bermuda conference] was the second conference held in April 1943 to discuss the rescue of refugees that had been liberated by allied forces and the Jews who remained in Nazi Europe. At the end of this conference as well there was no change towards rescuing the Jews and the [|immigration] quotas to accept [|Jewish refugees] were still at a standstill. The liberal [|Franklin Roosevelt Administration] attempted to try to save some Jews, but in the end, nothing was solved. The Holocaust was the preceding years of World War two and there was public disillusionment with Americans entry towards the war that the holocaust did not even seem like a priority. It all started as a global military conflict beginning in [|Asia] in 1937 and in Europe in 1939. There was about one hundred military personnel, so there were many people pre-occupied with the war to think nothing else than evil. The war effort was complete activation of the nation’s economic, industrial and scientific capabilities. Hitler saw a passageway to be able to take over a country and kill who he didn’t want to be there, only being the rest of the world was too preoccupied with a nonsense war. This war lasted from the late 1930s to September 2, 1945 and during this period of time Adolf Hitler attempted to exterminate the Jewish religion as well as the disabled, [|mentally ill], [|homosexuals], [|freemasons], [|Jehovah’s witnesses]and the [|Roma] population in Europe. There was about sixty million people and civilians killed in this war, but that is nothing compared to the death rate within the holocaust. Eleven million deaths surfaced from the holocaust in total, with six million Jewish deaths and five million deaths of Hitler’s other unwanted people. The world was focused on a war that killed many people, but they really did not even think to look upon the Holocaust that was at the same time when there was massive killings, simply because the leader of Europe disliked them. Systematic prosecution and elimination of European Jews by the [|Nazi] Germany and its allies, signifies the horridness of the holocaust. The word Nazi is an abbreviation for the German equitant of the National Socialism German workers party, they were under Adolf Hitler’s rule and they believed everything he had to say towards the people he wanted killed. From 1933-1945, “[|Ethnic Cleansing]” occurred towards Jews, [|gypsies], physically disabled, Jehovah’s witnesses, homosexuals and the mentally ill. These people that were attacked and killed by the Nazis never really had an idea of how far they would go if they did not surrender towards their rules. The Nazi’s had a strong anti-communist, anti-Jewish, racist component towards what they believed in as a political party. Hitler established six extermination death camps occupied in [|Poland]. Death at these camped were done by [|lethal injection], [|poisonous gas], shooting, [|forced labor], [|starvation], [|brutality], diseases, [|prostitution], deadly experiments and they were also burned alive. Hitler strongly believes that all of these people were unworthy to live and did whatever he could to kill them all in large amounts. Research and records were burned by the Nazi party when they realized that they were losing the war, so some information was actually never revealed. The Holocaust was a horrible period of time that killed eleven million people, mainly because of who they were, they did not have a choice to live or die. The United States did have a choice to help, but they were too into themselves to think of the rest of the world for just one second. The reporting details of the Holocaust stories about the mass murder of Jews in the articles were a few inches long and were placed in the back of newspapers. Considering that the United States is a very dramatizing country that blasts out over any bit of crazy information that they get, it is quite interesting as to why they did not decide to share the information fully for good news and lots of money. There were some photos from the Holocaust released that were suppressed simply because the US government did not want their people to get a horrid idea of why we were not doing anything to help them. Many reports about the holocaust information were either denied or unconfirmed by the US government as they wanted to classify what was occurring in Europe. Escaped prisoners filed reports towards what they went through and what was going on and of course that information was suppressed. The knowledge was only among some people even though some newspapers did in fact state what was occurring. Lacking to tell their country what was happening was a horrendous mistake because maybe in fact they could have helped out in someway, but of course the liberal US government kept it to themselves. Hitler never disguised his belief in German supremacy ever since he came into power in 1933. The United States could have saved more European Jews from death if they just put some effort into trying to save other people rather than just caring about themselves. Forced emigration could have saved thousands of Jews, if only the United States responded more actively and showed they cared. The Evian Conference and the Bermuda conference got nothing done, simply because no country was willing to accept the large number of Jewish refugees. The war department insisted that photos and news articles be kept classified because they did not want their country to get scared of what was occurring. In the end they would be crazed about it because of the massive amount of deaths and the fact the United States did very little to help them out. [|Prime Minister Winston Churchill] called for the death camp of Auschwitz to be bombed, but of course the US government ignored him. The civilized world was of course shocked to see the aftermath because the US really did know about the events, early on in the war. After it all occurred the Red Cross apologized for its passivity during the Holocaust. Everyone else was simply preoccupied with the war itself and the US was equally determined not to alter is immigration quotas. The United States Lack of effort to help more people survive during the holocaust is always going to associated as a horrible innocent in US history. [|Anti-Semitism] has always been a problem in the United States and of course everywhere else in the world. The creation of this word is to be signified exclusively to refer to the hostility and prejudice towards the Jewish religion. Anti-Semitism is the individual expressions of hatred and discrimination against Jews that started the entire thought of the Holocaust. There is a direct link towards isolationism and anti-Semitism. The Nazi soldiers were taught to not think of their prisoners as humans and it was no secret that the Nazi party was anti-Semitic. Attacks by mobs, state police and military on entire Jewish communities were how the United States dealt with their hatred against Jews. There were restrictive immigration quotas in 1921-1924, mainly because of the anti-Semitism thoughts among Americans. The American Anti-Semitism never approached as intensely as the hatred among Nazi Germany. Americans looked upon Jews very unfavorably and in 1920 the [|Ku Klux Klan]began to direct its venom at Jews, Blacks and Catholics. The immigration act of 1924 locked in immigration quotas from 1890, to intentionally limit the number of Jews allowed in the United States. 70%-85% of Americans opposed raising the quotas to help the Jewish refugees into the US. Sadly the war itself did not change Americans anti-Semitic attitudes. Anti-Semitism still exists today when Jews are not allowed employment, access to residential and resort areas, membership in clubs, organizations and teaching positions in colleges and universities. The holocaust is the most prominent example of anti-Semitism, but hopefully now we can really learn about what went on then with anti-Semitism, so it can lessen as time goes on. There is no doubt that the Holocaust was such a horrific time in history, but it is even more sad for Americans to view it because their country isolated itself and did not engage in helping save lives. Tons of things could have been thought out in a time of desperate thought to save millions of lives. It is just quite interesting to think about how the country you love and live in today is not really all what you thought the wonder country was. Back in the day of the holocaust the United States was just getting out of the Great Depression but so was the rest of the world. The entire world was engaged in World War II as well. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s act of conduct during this time were so lacking and anti-Semitic based, it is astonishing to why people believed he actually was a good man. The Holocaust was a time of when Adolf Hitler suddenly decided the religion of Jews should be exterminated and the very powerful country the United States did very little towards helping them, but hopefully our great country can learn and take action next time in the near future. 

"1940's Government and Politics: America's Response to the Holocaust." __American __ __Decades__. Ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli and Richard Layman. Gale Group, Inc., 1995. __eNotes.com__. 2006. 23 Apr, 2008 http://www.enotes.com/1940-government-politics-american-decades/americas-response-holocaust  -This citation gave me a great over view of Anti-semitism and how it affects everyone. The website only gave me about a paragraph of information, but it really did have useful ideas that I used in my paper. "America's Response to the Holocaust." __Yahoo__. 2008. GeoCities. 23 Apr. 2008[|http://] www.geocities.com/athens/rhodes/1188/usreholocaust.html. -The title of this website is American Response to the Holocaust, which is the main topic of my entire research paper. This cite gave me about a page of information about the entire overview of my paper topic, this website gave me great ideas that I used in my paper. Gutman , Israel . "United States." __Encyclopedia of the Holocaust__. Vol. S-  Z. New York: Macmillian, 1995.  -This encyclopedia gave me great information about my topic because it was a lot of pages fully dedicated towards the Holocaust. To find the United States response ideas in this encyclopedia I looked in the index and found the United States. This fave me a great Ideas that had three full pages about the United States and their response and thoughts towards the Holocaust. Lewis, Bernard. "Anti-semitism." __Wikipedia__. 22 Apr. 2008. 23 Apr. 2008  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism  -Wikipedia is a great source to use because it gives you great information about your topic, when you type it into the search engine it gives you great ideas on your topic. This page gave me great idea about Anti-Semitism and how it occurred during the Holocaust and how it still occurs today in life. Morse, Arthur D. "International Response to the Holocaust." __Wikipedia__. 5 <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">Apr. 2008. 23 Apr. 2008 <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"> <[|http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_t <span] style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">he_Holocaust>. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"> -This cite is Wikipedia that gave me a great overview of the intertnational response to the Hololocaust. Even though my topic was America’s response and this website is the international response, it did really give me many pages of the response of Americas and why they were so dilerberant to help. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">Smelser, Ronald M. "United States." __Learning About the Holocaust__. Vol. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"> S-Z. New York: Macmillan Reference, 1997. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">-This encyclopedia gave me great information about my topic because it was a lot of pages fully dedicated towards the Holocaust. To find the United States response ideas in this encyclopedia I looked in the index and found the United States. This fave me a great Ideas that had three full pages about the United States and their response and thoughts towards the Holocaust. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">"Text of Roosevelt Speech." __The New York Times__ 2 Dec. 1936. __Proquest__. 23 Apr. 2008 <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"><[|http://http://hn.bigchalk.com/hnweb/hn/do/document?set=searchera&start=1&rendition=x-article-image&inmylist=false&urn=urn%3Aproquest%3AUS%3BPQD] OC%3BHNP%3BPQD%3BHNP%3BPROD%3Bx-article-image%3B88089946&mylisturn=urn%3Aproquest%3AUS%3BPQDOC%3BHNP% 3BPQD%3BHNP%3BPROD%3Bx-citation%3B88089946>. -This cite gave me information on President Roosevelts thoughts on the Holocaust and how he thought he could help by having conferences upon the Holocaust. I found this speech in the New York Times online database, which gave me a great source for a newspaper. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">"Timeline: America's Response towards the Holocaust." __PBS__. 2008. 23 Apr. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">2008.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/timeline/index.html. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"> -  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">This website listed important datres occurring in the Holocaust. I used many of these dates to clarify what happened each year during the Holocaust. Given about two pages full of dates during the holocaust. “The Holocaust: America’s Response, 1941-1946.” Discovering US History. Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Http://galenet.galegroup.com/servere/history/// -This cite gave me great ideas about America’s Response and what the United States tried to do to help the Jews during the Holocaust. Described in this website the information listed ideas that the US did nothing. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"> "The United States and the Holocaust." __Holocaust Encyclopedia__. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">Washington <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2008. 23 Apr. 2008 <[|http://http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/ <span] style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005182>. -This encyclopedia gave me great information about my topic because it was a lot of pages fully dedicated towards the Holocaust. To find the United States response ideas in this encyclopedia I looked in the index and found the United States. This fave me a great Ideas that had three full pages about the United States and their response and thoughts towards the Holocaust. “United States Polices and the Holocaust.” History in Dispute, Vol. 3: American Social and Political Movements 1900-1945. Robert J. Allison, ed. St. James Press, 2000. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI. Gale. Http:galenet.galegroup.com/servet/History/ -I found this website on an internet database. I typed in my topic question and found this great cite that gave me ideas that directly related to my paper. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">Wyman, David S. __The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust-1941-1945.__ <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">New York, New York: The New Press, 1998. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"> -This book was about how the Jews were abandoned during the entire timeline of the Holocaust. It included great ideas upon how the United States abandoned the Jews during the Holocaust and this gave me a great book source.