United States Foreign Policy Toward Jewish Refugees During 1933-1939 :: History Historical foreign Jews Essays

United States Foreign Policy Toward Jewish Refugees During 1933-1939In reviewing the events which gave rise to the U.S.s foreign constitutiontoward Jewish refugees, we must identify the relevant factors upon which suchdecisions were made. Factors including the U.S. governments policy mechanisms,its bureaucracy and public opinion, coupled with the narrow domestic politicalmindedness of President Roosevelt, lead us to ask Why was the Americangovernment apathetic to the point of culpability, and isolationist to the pointof irresponsibility, with respect to the systematic persecution and annihilationof the Jewish people of Europe during the finish between 1938-1945?Throughout the years of 1933-1939, led by Neville Chamberlain and theBritish, the United States was pursuing a policy of appeasement toward Hitler.They had tolerated his military build-up and occupation of the Rhineland, bothviolations of the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the annexing of Austria andthe take-over of the Su detenland in Czechoslovakia. Hitler realized early on inhis expansionist campaign that Western leaders were too busy dealing with their have domestic problems to pose any real opposition. In the United States,Americans were wrestling with the ravages of the Great clinical depression. With thelingering memory of the more than 300,000 U.S. troops either killed or woundin World War I, isolationism was the dominant sentiment in most politicalcircles. Americans were not going to be dragged into another war by theBritish. The Depression had bred increased xenophobia and anti-Semitism, andwith upward of 30% unemployment in some industrial areas1, many Americans wantedto see immigration halted completely. It was in this context that thedemocratic world, led by the United States, was faced with a refugee problemthat it was morally bound to deal with. The question then became what wouldthey do?Persecution of the Jews in Germany began officially on April1st 1933. Hitler had perform to power a few weeks earlier and he immediately beganthe plan, as outlined in his book Mein Kampf, to eliminate the eternal mushroomof humanity - Jews.2 German Jews were stripped of their citizenship by theNuremberg Race Laws of 1935 and had their businesses and stockholdings seized in1938. Civil servants, newspaper editors, soldiers and members of the judiciarywere dismissed from their positions, while lawyers and physicians were forbiddento practice. Anti-Jewish violence peaked on 9 November 1938, known as theNight of the Broken Glass or Kristallnacht, when over 1000 synagogues wereburned. Jewish schools, hospitals, books, cemeteries and homes were alsodestroyed3.The mistreatment of non-Aryans in Germany was common knowledge in theU.S. in 1938. After the anschluss, the flow of