The Bystanders

USA: win the war first

Realistic arguments:

Defeat 2 major enemies on 2 fronts

War didn’t turn in favor of Allies until late 1942 with El Alamein and Stalingrad

“beyond belief”: accounts out of Europe must have been exaggerated!

We’ve gone over this so many times – when can we say that it was just a cop-out? -- Even though we have talked about this particular idea that the events of the Holocaust were leaking to the West, you still have to look at it in historical context. The time during which this “beyond belief” idea was the supposition of those in power to effect change has not altered. It just seems like it’s gone through all the years of the war; in reality, we’ve just mentioned it in regard to one basic timeframe.

FDR didn’t want to fight a “Jewish war”

Much American antisemitism in 1920’s

Intensified with the Depression

Need for scapegoats

1939: 41% of Americans believed Jews had too much power

Of those, 10% favored Jewish deportation

50% would never vote for a Jewish presidential candidate

33% questioned Jewish patriotism

33% endorsed antisemitism

120+ antisemitic groups in USA in 1930’s

Give me your thoughts on this if we apply it to today’s political climate. – I don’t think there was too much discussion when Senator Lieberman ran as Al Gore’s vice-presidential candidate in 2000. -- I’ve heard people say that the Jews have too much power, that they maybe control the American media. But I don’t think the mainstream pays much attention to that. – I think it would be more accurate to substitute Muslims where we are discussing Jews. I think these statistics are much more relevant in the post-9/11 era when we apply them to Muslims… -- That is an excellent point. Do you think a Muslim is an electable candidate at the national level? -- Not at the present time. We’ll have to see how terrorism takes shape in the next few years, as well as how the current Israeli-Palestinian situation plays out.

April, 1939: public opinion poll at time of Wagner-Rogers bill (proposed to admit 20,000 Jewish children above quota)

42.3% believed antisemitism was result of negative Jewish traits

What does this sound like? -- It sounds an awful lot like the Americans bought into the ideas of racial superiority that the Nazis were pushing. – Do you think that much of the racism would have been in the South as opposed to the North? -- Maybe, but think about the economy – most immigrants landed in America in the North, and therefore took over industrial jobs from white northerners. In the South, black labor was still cheap and there wouldn’t have been the need for farmers to seek out alternative labor. – I do think, however, that you raise a valid point about racism. When was the second great period of Ku Klux Klan activity? -- In the 1920’s-‘30’s. – And we’ve previously read about the American eugenics movement…

Similar poll later that year said that of all immigrants, Jews and Italians made the worst citizens

Quakers and some other groups were in favor of the bill

Bill died in committee (FDR stamped it – file: no action)

Later, British refugee children were admitted

American Jewry attempted to raise consciousness, but only constituted 3% of the population

And since they weren’t looked upon favorably by most of society, who would listen to them anyway?

Bombing Auschwitz in 1944 was dangerous – arguments against action:

Anti-aircraft activity around Osweicim

Railroads could have been rebuilt easily

Thousands of inmates would have been killed

Planes were needed elsewhere

A couple of thoughts here: if they were afraid to fly over the camp, then why are there reconnaissance photos of Auschwitz? And in regard to the planes being needed elsewhere, we’ve mentioned the tremendous resources Hitler applied to the Holocaust when still attempting to win the war. – But, even though Hitler was fighting a two-front war, like the Americans, he was basically fighting in his own backyard. The US was on two different sides of the world. So maybe they really couldn’t spare the planes. – But planes were bombing close to Auschwitz; it would not have been difficult to make a bombing run near the camp.

FDR wanted to win the war

Jewish question was a very minor part of the big picture

I think I can relate to this – if the war is lost, much worse will happen to even more people.

FDR had fought against isolationism

Had also fought domestic antisemitism

Had Jews in his cabinet, Jewish friends

Major questions to above policies:

US refugee policy was terrible

Breckenridge Long, asst. Sec. of State, did all he could to stymie immigration, particularly Jews

Antisemitic tendencies, right-wing leanings

Perhaps this is where the true blame should lie, with some of Roosevelt’s underlings.

War Refugee Board: formed February 1944

Saved thousands of lives

1943 Bermuda Conference

US and UK met to discuss Jewish problem

The Holocaust was “beyond belief”

Deliberately misunderstood and swept underfoot

A lack of imagination as to the scope of the problem, coupled with a lack of creativity in solving it meant that no action was the best alternative.

FDR could have taken a risk in “the Jewish War”

Took risks in other places

But again, we have to look at public opinion. – Yeah, but how often does the government do things and we find out about it years later. The media wasn’t the same back then. The public didn’t know every speck of dirt on politicians. – They certainly weren’t telling everyone, “Hey – we’re building a bomb!”

American Jewry could have done more

Lack of unity

Petty squabbles and disputes

Lack of understanding/knowledge of magnitude

July/August – November, 1944: 150,000 gassed at Auschwitz

Bombing would have slowed or disrupted Final Solution

Eleanor Roosevelt pushed humanitarianism beyond policy, bureaucracy

Why didn’t FDR?

At the conclusion of the discussion we debriefed on the material we’d covered. I am continually impressed by the willingness of students to participate with passion on this topic. The comments from students can be attributed to many different people. Even quiet kids have at times been spurred to voice opinions or concerns. I feel good that I am able to reach them with not only a subject that interests them, but also one that definitely has relevance to their citizenship, compassion, and accountability toward their fellow man.

After somewhat abusing the Americans on their lack of action against the Nazi persecutions of Europe’s Jews, today it was the Catholics’ turn. In fairness, I try to always preface this discussion with somewhat of a disclaimer: The Church was in Europe, it is the largest Christian faction in Europe, and regardless of one’s brand of Christianity (or religion altogether), the pope is still recognized as a major world leader as well as a pillar of morality. For these reasons, and due to the disjointedness of the various Protestant faiths, the Vatican gets the bulk of the blame. Students generally take this well, but I am always sensitive to the plight of the Catholic students – you never know how people will react. And of course, one has to assume that a fair percentage of any class will be unchurched, so that is always a pothole against which to guard.

The Vatican

Policy of silence: Pope Pius XII said nothing

No declaration on behalf of Jews

As cardinal, he was Vatican envoy to Berlin and had negotiated a Concordant with Hitler in 1933 – major diplomatic victory for Nazis

Why didn’t the Nazis just crush the Church like the Soviets did? Why weren’t they atheists? – How did Hitler come to power? -- His party was elected popularly, after forming a coalition and then he was appointed. Oh, so at first his power base was the people, and so early on he didn’t want to risk upsetting that when things were just getting going.

Vichy Laws of 1940 (France)

No protest; in fact, endorsement

Ante Pavolic, Croatian strongman and hater of Jews and gypsies

Received as a guest of the Vatican

Nov. 1942: joint US/British condemnation of Nazis

Pius XII made no statement

In 1937, Pius XI issued an encyclical condemning Nazi racism; some evidence he was going to issue another condemning Nazi treatment of the Jews

Oct. 1943: Jews of Rome (1,035) rounded up and deported

Pope made no statement

Let’s take a look at some of the history behind this. What do you think is going on here? -- I think he was a coward and he didn’t want to risk losing his power. – Well, what power did he really have? We’re a long way past the times when the popes had armies or controlled large amounts of land. I think he might have been fearful that the Nazis or the Fascists would invade the Vatican, and then he would have no chance to ever have a voice. – That’s not a bad point; the popes through history have always feared that the Holy Roman Emperors would invade Rome and take over the Vatican. – Then he would have just been a puppet ruler. The Nazis could have told him anything to say and people would have believed it. – So then why didn’t they do that?? -- Because there were some, maybe even Protestants, who would have stepped up against it. Plus, you can’t assume that the Catholics of Europe would appreciate their leader being intimidated. Hitler had the allegiance of the army, but that was over the flag, not God. I think the people would have rallied around the pope. – So I’m back to why Pius XII didn’t feel like he could do anything to stop the deportations… -- Maybe he didn’t want to be seen as making alliances with the English and the Americans – that would have split the Germans and maybe caused more problems. – Let’s look on, then, and see where this leads us…

Interests of church took precedence over anything

Where have we just recently seen this? -- When we looked at FDR and the idea of “win the war first”.

After the war, certain elements in the Vatican helped Nazis escape to South America, etc.

Leading Catholic Nazis, including Hitler, were never condemned or excommunicated

So where does this say that God was in the Holocaust? This kind of gives those who think the Jews should be eternally punished as Christ killers some ammunition…

Defense of papal actions

German and Austrian Catholics: would have undermined unity and morale if Pius had chosen sides in the issue

USSR was atheistic; Catholics fighting atheists

So was this like a crusade, with the destruction of the Jews as the byproduct? Sound familiar?

Pius XII tried to soften some decrees against Jews in non-German lands

Many individual Catholics (nuns, priests, citizens) aided Jews, sometimes even in convents and monasteries

This is very positive, and we’ll look at the rescuers in a second.

Aid to Italian Jews

How much power did the Church have?

Could Pius truly have influenced the world??

Vatican archives on these times won’t be opened until well into the 21^st Century.

Why do you think this is not going to happen for so long? -- So everyone who was involved will be dead, and all the people with dirty hands won’t have to own up to anything.