Jewish Persecution During Ww2 Essay

The United States never made the rescue of the Jews a priority, during World War II. Even with ongoing persecution of Jews, the State Department of the United States made it almost impossible for Jewish Refugees to enter into the States.
The hardships brought on by the depression, was one of the deciding factors towards the attitude of the State department.
In 1924, the US congress passed a law that further restricted the number of entry visas. They were restricted further, when the American consuls were instructed by the States, to delay visa approvals on the grounds of national security.
However with all these restrictions in place, between the year 1939 and 1940, most of half the immigrants that came to America were Jewish refugees from
Europe.
In 1941, with America entering into the world War in December, the percentage of Jews that immigrated into America fell. This drastic fall in immigrant refugees into America came in at the time during in which the Nazi regime began to systematically kill the Jew. However even with the many obstacles, more than 200,000 Jews immigrated to America between the years of 1933 and 1945.

The response to the ‘Final Solution’.
In 1942, the Geneva-based representative of the World Jewish Congress, Gerhart Riegner, sent a report the State Department stated that a policy was implemented to annihilate the Jews.
Despite the State Department’s denial in conveying the message to the President of the American Jewish leader of the World, Stephen Wise. Wise learned of the news through British channels.
Wise, then went onto request permission from the State department to publicize news of the murder of the Jews in Europe. He was then asked to publicize the contents of the report without receiving the green light from the State Department.
Stephen Wise waited 3 months and when he received conformation, he then held a press conference stating that Nazi Germany was planning implementing a policy on annihilating the European Jews.
The Allied powers, on December 17th issued a declaration stating that they denounced the intentions of the Nazi Germany’s attack on the Jews.
The declarations also announced that they would hold Germany responsible for these crimes.

The Press Coverage of the ‘Final Solution’.
The United States of America didn’t always report of the heinous crimes in the paper. For example: the most prominent newspaper, de-emphasized the killing of the Jews in its coverage.
The American news coverage on the violence on Jews, as early as 1933. They reported on the Nuremberg laws and the expansion of the German anti-Semitic legislation, of 1935, 1938 and 1939 respectively.
The other daily front page news included the state-sanctioned violence of Kristallnacht, which lasted between the days of November 9th to the 10th, 1938. Another front page story was Hitler’s prediction on January 30th 1939, in which he stated that a new world would mean the annihilation of the Jewish race.
Between 1939-1941, the violence against the Jews increased. There were American newspapers ran stories describing the German shootings that took place first in Poland, and later after the invasion of the Soviet Union. However, most of the time the ethnic identity of the victims were not always released to the
public.
The New York Times reported on July 2nd using sources from the Polish underground, regarding the killing centre in Chelmno. On December 1942, the New York Times published the statement released by the Allies which condemned the mass murder of European Jews on the front page.
They published other vital information released by Stephen Wise on the 10th page, which significantly minimized its importance.