https://www.timesofisrael.com/historian-new-evidence-shows-fdrs-bigotry-derailed-many-holocaust-rescue-plans/Historian: New evidence shows FDR’s bigotry derailed many Holocaust rescue plansNot only was US president Franklin Roosevelt perfunctory about rescuing Jews from the Nazis, but he obstructed rescue opportunities that would have cost him little or nothing, according to Holocaust historian Rafael Medoff.
FDR’s role in preventing the rescue of European Jewry is detailed in a new book called, “The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust.â€
Published in September, Medoff’s book includes new archival materials about the relationship between Roosevelt and Rabbi Stephen Wise, who the author sees as a sycophantic Jewish leader used by Roosevelt to “keep the Jews quiet.â€
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According to Medoff, Roosevelt’s policies toward European Jews were motivated by sentiments similar to those that spurred him to intern 120,000 Japanese Americans in detention camps as potential spies.
“Roosevelt used almost identical language in recommending that the Jews and the Japanese be forcibly ‘spread thin’ around the country,†Medoff told The Times of Israel. “I was struck by the similarity between the language FDR used regarding the Japanese, and that which he used in private concerning Jews — that they can’t be trusted, they won’t ever become fully loyal Americans, they’ll try to dominate wherever they go.â€
During the 1920s, when Roosevelt was already a seasoned politician and a vice presidential candidate, he expressed racist views in editorials and interviews. Regarding new immigrants — and Asians in particular — he bemoaned the creation of ethnic “colonies†in major cities.
“Our main trouble in the past has been that we have permitted the foreign elements to segregate in colonies,†Roosevelt told the Brooklyn Eagle daily newspaper in a 1920 interview. “They have crowded into one district and they have brought congestion and racial prejudices to our large cities.â€
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“[Roosevelt] would not have had to incur substantial political risks had he permitted immigration up to the limits set by US law, admitted refugees temporarily to a US territory, utilized empty Liberty ships to carry refugees, or authorized dropping bombs on Auschwitz or the railways from planes that were already flying over the camp and its environs,†wrote Medoff.
10 or 20 years ago I do not think I would have posted this article, because I used to think that claims like this went too far. Probably my strongest reasons, though, were more emotional than rooted in fact:
1. I try to be aware and wary of my prejudices. I believe FDR did much harm to the US, so I try to be very careful when something - like this - plays to that view.
2. I really have been resistant to the idea that some US Presidents have been this kind of bigoted. Learning of Wilson's racism and observing Obama's thinly veiled racism and antisemitism have overcome that resistance.
3. I always thought that FDR was ill-served in this area by his State Department and the academics he drew from for his Administrations' actions. I did not think FDR himself was racist/antisemitic.
Even though this article is a book review, it cites enough hard evidence that together with other things I know of FDR, I think he was, and blame attaches to him beyond the "The Buck Stops Here", it happened on his watch, kind of general blame. Could FDR have saved 5-6M Jews from Hitler? Obviously not. OTOH, he kept 10s of thousands out of the US who could have been admitted
within existing law, and he blocked who knows how many thousands from finding refuge elsewhere. And even had he not bombed concentration camps out of concern for not killing inmates, he could have had the railroads and roads serving those the camps severed, keeping God knows how many 10s or 100s of thousands out of the extermination camps.
