Fdr and the Holocaust

On the second of August 1934, Adolf Hitler finally took total control of Germany’s government. With complete command of the military, and both executive and legislative factions firmly under his control, Hitler was ready to move towards his two major goals: Germany’s dominance over all other countries, and the eradication of certain minorities, namely, the Jews. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the 32nd president of the United States presided over a country that was slowly recovering from its massive depression five years earlier. FDR wielded the extensive support of his country, who trusted him for his personal “fireside chats” and for his success in bringing the country out of its recession. Among his supporters were the vast majority of the American Jewish population. This devotion to FDR by the American Jews can be mostly attributed to Roosevelt’s denouncing of anti-Semitism, which, at the time, permeated the world. In addition to that, Roosevelt surrounded himself with Jewish advisors and friends. However, even after Roosevelt publicly condemned anti-semites before the war and passed multiple executive orders assuring fair rights and treatment to minorities, (including Jews) he was not ready to make a single speech to try to save European Jews from Hitler’s reign of terror. During what we now call the Holocaust, Hitler lead the Nazi party in a mass murder of six million European Jews and five million other “unfavorable” minorities. The Nazis did this through mass-gassings, death marches, drowning, and straight-out shooting. Most of these crimes against humanity occurred within sealed off death and concentration camps, but, nonetheless, escapees managed to arrive in America, bearing the news of Hitler’s terrible deeds, and pleading with the government to assist those who could not escape. However, even before the Nazis began to carry out extreme measures against the Jews, anti-Semitism permeated their culture and political agenda for a few years prior.