The American Lack of Involvement in the Holocaust - Coursework Example

 The American Lack of involvement in the Holocaust The United States of America has always been one of the most powerful nations of the world. She stands as a paradigm of success for the world economically, socially as well as politically. American foreign policies have changed with the change of time. After the World War I the U.S adopted a policy of isolationism which meant that it would not interfere in the domestic and international matters of other countries. During that period the Eastern European Jews were deprived of their civil rights, freedom and humanity. The Nazi army had taken the task of eliminating all the Jews from the face of the earth. This German policy led to the massacre of millions of Jews during the 1930s. Yet the U.S remained aloof from the situation in Eastern Europe. Several views have been highlighted to defend the role of US in the holocaust. Some state that the country was adhering to its foreign policy rules. Many suggest that it was ignorance or simply denial of the original facts. Many also state that the anti Semitism was behind the non involvement of the US in the European affairs. In this paper I aim to discuss the various theories behind the non involvement attitude of the US towards the holocaust. I shall explore every theory with different angles thus highlighting the underlying factors behind the lack of involvement of the United States in the Eastern European affairs during the holocaust. The paper will highlight the motives which led one of the most influential nations of the world from keeping away from the international affairs of other countries. As mentioned above, a number of theories have been presented by the historians. I shall first begin with looking at the Isolationist policy adopted by the US. ISOLATIONISM: The Americans did not involve themselves in rescuing the Jews from the German persecution partly because they had adopted the policy of isolationism which stated that they would not get involved in other countries international and domestic issues. Although many claim that the US was unaware of the mass scale killing of the Jews, still some information was provided to the government. The government however decided not to interfere in the matter. According to the online holocaust encyclopedia, in August 1942, the US State department received a cable which confirmed the Nazi plan of killing all the European Jews. The report was sent by Gerhard Reigner, a representative of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva. A copy of it was also sent to an American Rabbi, Stephen Wise, who was asked by the government not to raise an issue about it. The report was also not shared with the other government officials (Holocaust Encyclopedia, 2008). In another incident a Polish courier Jan Karski informed the then President Roosevelt about the mass murder of the Jews by the Nazi army. Karski was given the information by some Jewish leaders in the Warsaw ghetto. However, unfortunately, no immediate action was taken about the issue. On the other hand the US government passed a bill which limited the immigration of the Jews to the United States. Twice the legislation related to the refuge of 10,000 Jewish children was rejected by the Congress (Holocaust Encyclopedia, 2008). In April 19, 1943 the representatives of the US and the British government met at Bermuda to discuss the refugee issue. However nothing was achieved from the meeting. In 1944 a War Refugee Board was set up to help the imperiled refugees. Fort Ontario, New York was chosen as a place to facilitate refugees. However the refugees brought to this place were not from the areas of Nazi persecution but from other safer areas (Holocaust Encyclopedia, 2008). The refugee issue was rejected on the basis that it would endanger their nativism and would create an economic situation that would seriously affect the people of America. The Americans found it difficult to understand the notion of giving job to a refugee and leave a native unemployed (Wyman, 1968). In spring 1944, the Allies became aware of the fact that a mass killing of the Jews had taken place in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Nazis had used poisonous gas to kill the Jews. This incident compelled many Jewish leaders to plead to the US to help the European Jews by bombing the gas plants and the railway lines that led to the camps. From August 20 to September 13, 1944 the US Air Force bombarded the Auschwitz-Monowitz industrial complex which was five miles away from the Birkenau gas chambers. After that the US continued its isolationist policy and refrained from getting involved in the rescue of the Jews. They also did not destroy the gas chambers and the railway system that was used to transport the Jewish prisoners (Holocaust Encyclopedia, 2008). IGNORANCE: Karen Wexler (2003) writes about the US attitude towards the holocaust in her contribution in an article titled “The US and the Holocaust”. She is of the view that the Americans did not pay attention to the massacre of Jews in the Eastern Europe due to the fact that they were unaware of the reality of the situation. She stated that the Americans were not provided authentic information from the Nazis. Supporting her stance Abzug (1999) writes in his book “America Views the Holocaust:1933-1945: A Brief Documentary History”, that the Americans became aware of the situation through the reports, photographs and videos made by the Allied journalists, Single Corps photographers and the liberating soldiers. These men brought the reality of the holocaust back home which astonished the Americans. Prior to the availability of the evidence the people simply declared it to be an exaggeration, distortion of facts and publicity propaganda. People simply commented “So it was true” or “We didn’t know”. Although it is debatable that the Americans were actually ignorant about the realities of the holocaust still many reports, newspaper articles and interviews have proven the fact that the people working in the Eastern European areas were not aware of the brutalities of the Nazi army. Based on this notion one can state that if the people working close to the holocaust were unaware of the reality then those living poles apart would definitely be ignorant of the situation (Wexler, 2003). Wexler (2003) further states that there has been a difference in the information provided to Americans about the brutalities in the beginning and end of the war. The holocaust covered the period from 1933-1945. Initially the brutalities were not harsh enough to be hidden by the world. With the severity of the war the brutalities increased. The Nazis concealed and provided inaccurate information to the world. Since the world was unaware of the reality so the Americans too remained ignorant. They believed in what was told to them. The tactics of the Germans also played a major role in keeping the Americans and the rest of the world from the real situation. The issue of “The Final Solution” in which all the Jews were to be kept in death camps was totally kept as a secret. For example the massive act of deporting the Jews was justified by the Germans as an “economic requirement of war”. The Germans also convinced the American reporters that they were not uprooting the Jews from their families and that Stalin was worse than Hitler in order to divert their attention towards other issues (Lipstdat, 1986). The Americans were not successful in digging out the truth. They were aware of the fact that mass brutalities were taking place but they did not know that the Germans were solely targeting the Jews and were gassing and killing them everyday. American papers printed the stories that were less cruel. The German tactics of concealing the facts worked and America remained silent about the issue (Wexler, 2003). DENIAL: One can accept the fact that the Americans were not given accurate information regarding the holocaust. But some newspaper reports suggest some other factor as well. The Germans treated “the mass murder program quite differently from the other anti-Semitic campaigns. The Americans failed to comprehend the reality but they were not totally ignorant of the whole situation. American government was aware of some reality (Lipstadt, 1986).” The Germans were quite cautious of the real facts related to the holocaust. They stated that the Jews were to be sent to the work camps as a part of resettlement. It did confuse the people who wanted to explore more about the real situation. Lipstadt (1986) stated “the Germans did more than try to keep things a secret; they released all kinds of information designed to obfuscate”. Americans were confused about what and what not to believe. Many Americans chose not to believe the stories related to the holocaust. In World War I many such reports related to the atrocities created much hype in the media. They were later proved to be false. In the WWII many chose not to believe in such stories. At the same time the idea of mass killing of humans appeared inhuman to the masses and therefore unreal. For that matter many chose not to believe in the holocaust. “In a certain respect these were healthy doubts-the mind’s rebellion against believing that human beings were capable of sinking to such levels of depravity-but they made it easier for the perpetrator’s to camouflage their plan (Lipstadt, 1986)”. The news reporters were themselves not sure about the authenticity of the reports and were not sure what to do with it. Thus the reports lost their significance and got their place some where in the middle of the paper. “The news was not a secret, but it faced so many obstacles that it was almost more rational to dismiss it as untrustworthy as to accept it as true.” Not believing in such reports became easier than to believe in them. Thus the reports lost their significance. “…a fairly accurate picture of the situation was available first to government officials and then to the public, long before the end of the war.  Often it was not believed.  In order to understand how this was so, it is critical that we ask not when news was available but how it was made available (Lipstadt, 1986)”. ANTI SEMITISM: The 1930s decade also witnessed another alarming factor in the United States which came in the form of anti Semitism. Before the Pearl Harbor there were a number of anti Semitic organizations that were spreading hate propaganda among the general public. Anti Semitism was at its peak in the 1930s and continued till 1940s. It was a common practice among non Jews to raise hate slogans, attack synagogues and young Jews and spread anti Jewish literature (Freeman, 2003). Another type of attitude came in the form of passive anti Semitism. The Jews have always been looked down upon by non Jews. While most of the Americans did not involve themselves in practices that would physically harm the Jews they adopted an attitude of simply not caring about them. When some reports did come about the holocaust they simply did not care to raise a voice or involve themselves in activities that would lessen the severity of the situation (Freeman, 2003). Not only the general masses but the Congress and Armed Forces also adopted a strategy that reflected anti Semitism. The Congress passed a resolution that blocked all the refuge places for the Jews. A bill was passed in the Congress that allowed refuge only to limited number of Jews. Like Britain they adopted a policy that tightened the entry of refugees into Palestine. A prominent member of the Congress John Rankin openly criticized and abused the Jews. The same attitude was witnessed in the Armed Forces where officers used words such as “kikes” and abused the Jews stereotypes. Many Jews within the armed forced expressed their frustration over the anti Semitic attitude of the higher officials (Freeman, 2003). A public opinion poll conducted during the mid 1930s and 1940s showed anti Semitic attitude of the American public. Majority of the people stated the Jews to be greedy and dishonest. The same poll also indicated that the Jews were a powerful community in the US and 40-50% agreed to have anti Jewish campaigns. Thus anti Semitism was one of the reasons why America did not involve itself in the holocaust. If the American government did not bother about the abuses of the Jews within its boundaries then how could they help Jews living in another continent (Freeman, 2003)? To conclude, America remained aloof from the holocaust. It neither sent troops to help the European Jews nor opened its doors for those who managed to escape from the atrocities of the Nazi army. Isolationism, anti Semitism, denial, ignorance or any other reason prevented America from helping the Jews or stopping the mass genocide. Not only the government but also the masses remained cold about the issue. If America had responded on humanitarian basis it would have definitely made a significant impact in controlling the situation. REFERENCES Abzug, R. H., (1999). America Views the Holocaust, 1933-1945: A Brief Documentary History. Boston, New York, Bedford /St. Martin’s. Pg. 111. Freeman, L. (2003). “Anti Semitism”, The United States Sits in Silence, The US and the Holocaust Project Group. Retrieved on October 17, 2008 from http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/usholo/LaurenAntisemPage.htm Lipstadt, D. (1986). Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust 1933- 1945. New York. A Division of Macmillan, Inc., The Free Press, Pg. 136-142. “The United States and the Holocaust”, (Updated on October 7, 2008). Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved on October 17, 2008 from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005182 Wexler, K. (2003). “Ignorance.” The United States Sits in Silence, The US and the Holocaust Project Group. Retrieved on October 17, 2008 from http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/usholo/KerenUSIgnorance.htm Wyman, D. (1968). Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1938-1941. Amherst, MA. University of Massachusetts Press, Pg. 111. 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