America’s Reaction to the Holocaust

U.S Policy Towards Jewish Immigration

1924

National Origins ActStrict Quota on number of Immigrants based on country of origin

NAZI Persecution of the Jewish People

Nov. 1935: Nuremberg Laws

Nov 8th/9th 1938 Kristallnacht“night of the broken glass”

Jan. 1942: Wannsee Conference-”Final Solution” on the Jewish Question

August 1938: Evian Conference

May 13, 1939 U.S.S St. Louis attempts to sail 900 Jewish Refugees to the U.S by way of Cuba

1941: Germany bans all Jewish emigration

Quota Laws and Evian Conference

• 1924 National Origins Act- immigration law that severally limited the number of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe– Excluded almost all Asians and Nonwhites

• 1938 Evian Conference- 32 countries meet to discuss sympathy for the persecution of Jewish refugees but DID NOT lift immigration restrictions (Except the Dominican Republic)– U.S fails to pass the Wagners Rogers Bill –permitting 20,000

Jewish German children immigration

The Hotel Royal, site of the Evian Conference on Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Evian-les-Bains, France, July 1938.— National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.

United States delegate Myron Taylor delivers a speech at the Evian Conference on Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Evian-les-Bains, France, July 15, 1938.

REQUIREMENTS FOR GERMAN-JEWISH REFUGEES during WWII1. Visa Application (five copies)2. Birth Certificate (two copies; quotas were assigned by country of birth)3. A Certificate of Good Conduct from German police authorities, including two copies respectively of the following:

Police dossierPrison recordMilitary record

4. Affidavits of Good Conduct (required after September 1940)5. Physical Examination at the U.S. Consulate6. Permission To Leave Germany (imposed September 30, 1939)7. Proof of Booked Passage to the Western Hemisphere (required after September 1939)8. Two Sponsors ("affiants"); close relatives of prospective immigrants were preferred. The sponsors must have been American citizens or have had permanent resident status, and they must have filled out an9. Affidavit of Support and Sponsorship (six copies notarized), as well as provided:

Certified copy of their most recent Federal tax returnAffidavit from a bank regarding their accountsAffidavit from any other responsible person regarding other assets (an affidavit from the sponsor’s employer or a statement of commercial rating)

1930s US VISA RESTRICATIONS

Responses to the Jewish Persecution

Antisemitic poster equating Jews with communism. United States, 1939.— Jewish War Veterans Museum

Antisemitic cartoon from the 1896 presidential election thatdepicts the United States (represented by Uncle Sam) beingcrucified by greedy Jewish businessmen.

HITLER VIOLATES VERSAILLES

• MARCH 1935: Hitler orders Germany to “re-arm” –begins conscription (draft)

• MARCH 1936: Hitler marches troops into the occupied Rhineland

• MARCH 1938: Germany annexes Austria making it “Greater Germany”

• Sept. 1938: Germany occupies the German Speaking area of Czechoslovakia (known as the Sudetenland

Appeasement in Harry Potter

CORNELIUS FUDGE, MINISTRY OF MAGIC

NEVILE CHAMBERLINE, PRIME MINISTER OF BRITAIN

Munich Agreement of September 30, 1938, the major European powers allowed German troops to occupy the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia , for the sake of "peace in our time".

The “Jewish Question”?

• What to do with European Jews? – Resettlement *(Early 1930s) – Segregation (Nazi Germany 1933-1938) – Ghetto’s Established in Poland and Eastern Europe

(1939-1943) – Massive Killing Operations (June 1941) – Final Solution –Liquidation of Jews through Death

Camps (1942-1945) – Death Marches –1945

Members of an Einsatzkommando (mobile killing squad) before shooting a Jewish youth. The boy's murdered family lies in front of him; the men to the left are ethnic Germans aiding the squad. Slarow, Soviet Union, July 4, 1941.

Mobile Killing Unit in the Soviet Union

Wannsee Conference

• January 1942 • Determined that the Jews could not be

eliminated through emigration• Developed the “Final Solution”– Systematic extermination of the European Jews

• U.S found out about Wannsee in Summer of 1942 BUT filed away and DID NOTHING

Exit Ticket:

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1. List two ways the U.S responded or didn’t respond to the Holocaust?

2. Based on what you know about the 1930s and 1940s why do you think the U.S responded this way?