Bearing Witness: How America and Its Jews Responded to the HolocaustOne of America's most prominent historians probes the haunting question of why the efforts of the American government and Jewish leaders were ineffective in halting or mitigating Berlin's genocidal policy during the Holocaust. Focusing on the role of the Roosevelt administration and American Jewish leadership, Henry L. Feingold anchors the American reaction to the Holocaust in the tension-ridden domestic environment of the depression to the international scene. In these essays, he argues that the constraints of the American political system in the 1930s and 40s and the extraordinary events of the time virtually made it impossible for the administration and American Jews to react differently. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Uniqueness of the Holocaust | 19 |
The Judenrat | 41 |
The Resistance Question | 54 |
Roosevelts New Deal Humanitarianism | 73 |
Could Mass Resettlement Have Saved | 94 |
The American Effort to Save the Jews | 141 |
Governmental Response to Human Crisis | 169 |
Deceit and Indifference | 183 |
Was There Communal Failure Among | 205 |
Jewish Leadership During the Roosevelt Years | 225 |
Rescue and the Secular Perception | 243 |
Who Shall Bear Guilt for the Holocaust? | 255 |
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administration's agencies Allied American Jewish American Jewry anti-Semitism Arendt Auschwitz became become Bergson group Berlin bombing Bowman Breckinridge Long British Guiana Budapest Committee concern convinced culture death camps Department Eichmann established ethnic Europe European Jewry Evian conference fact failure fate FDRL/WRB Feingold Final Solution Frankfurter genocide ghetto haven Henry Morgenthau Jr historian Holocaust humanitarian Hungarian Hungary idea immigration law interest Isaiah Bowman Jewish community Jewish history Jewish leaders Jewish leadership Jewish refugees June Latin lives London mass murder McDonald MSS ment Morgenthau nations Nazi negotiations offer organizations PACPR Palestine Pehle percent Political Refugees possible priorities refugee crisis refugee problem Reich rescue advocates rescue effort resettlement schemes resistance response role Roosevelt administration Rublee save the Jews secular settlement Soviet Stephen Wise thirties tion United universalist victims visa Washington witnesses World Jewish Congress York Zionist Zionist movement