According to the recent Ken Burns documentary, “The Roosevelts,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom more forcefully than any other world leader. But the truth is that FDR responded with superficial gestures rather than meaningful action.
On the night of November 9-10, 1938, mobs of Nazi stormtroopers unleashed a hurricane of violence and destruction upon the Jews of Germany. Hundreds of Jews were beaten in the streets, and more than 90 were murdered. About 30,000 more were dragged off to concentration camps. Several hundred synagogues were burned to the ground, while fire fighters stood by, under orders from the Hitler government to act only to keep fires from spreading to property owned by non-Jews. An estimated 7,000 Jewish business were ransacked. The violence became known as Kristallnacht, the “Night of the Glass,” a reference to the widespread smashing of windows of Jewish homes and shops.
Ken Burns’ “The Roosevelts” emphasized that FDR was “the only leader of a democratic nation to dare denounce” the pogrom. Six days after the violence ended, Roosevelt told a press conference that he “could scarcely believe such things could occur” in the 20th century.
FDR also took two steps. He extended the visas of the approximately 15,000 German Jewish refugees who were then in the United States as tourists–but he also announced that liberalization of America’s immigration policy was “not in contemplation.” Roosevelt alsorecalled the U.S. ambassador from Germany for “consultations”
–but he rejected suggestions by some members of Congress to break diplomatic ties with the Hitler regime.
The narrator on “The Roosevelts” pointed out that Roosevelt’s temporary recall of the ambassador was “something neither Britain nor France dared do.”
When it came to token gestures, FDR did indeed surpass Britain and France. But when it came to meaningful action to help the Jews, it was another story.
In the weeks following Kristallnacht, Great Britain took in 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish refugee children (known as the Kindertransport project), 5,000 refugees who had been released from Nazi concentration camps on condition that they leave Germany, and thousands of young German Jewish women who were admitted as cooks and nannies.
France, which was in the midst of cracking down on undocumented Jewish refugees, was less generous. Nevertheless, in the months following Kristallnacht, it did agree to admit 1,000 German and Austrian Jewish children, eased the status of some illegal Jewish immigrants, and accepted 224 of the passengers on the refugee ship St. Louis, which was 224 more than the Roosevelt administration took in.
In any event, the real question is not how President Roosevelt compared to other heads of state, but what options were actually before him as he weighed how to respond to Kristallnacht.
Here are some of the most promising ones:
The governor and legislative assembly of the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory, offered to open their doors to Jewish refugees. FDR rejected the offer; he said Nazi spies disguised as Jewish refugees might sneak from the islands to the mainland.
Several members of Roosevelt’s cabinet, and some members of Congress, proposed opening the Alaska territory to refugees. The president said he would consider it only if no more than 10% of the immigrants were Jews.
College professors, students, rabbis, cantors, and their families were exempt from the quota limits. Roosevelt could have quietly told the State Department to be more lenient in approving their visas applications. He did not.
The British government suggested that the Roosevelt administration give unused British quota places (there were more than 60,000 left over each year) to German Jewish applicants. U.S. officials indignantly rebuffed the proposal as unwarranted interference in America’s domestic affairs.
When it came to FDR’s response to Kristallnacht, Ken Burns’ “The Roosevelts” got it wrong. The president’s actions were thin gestures that look even less impressive when one considers the other steps that were proposed to him at the time.
According to the recent Ken Burns documentary, “The Roosevelts,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom more forcefully than any other world leader. But the truth is that FDR responded with superficial gestures rather than meaningful action.
On the night of November 9-10, 1938, mobs of Nazi stormtroopers unleashed a hurricane of violence and destruction upon the Jews of Germany. Hundreds of Jews were beaten in the streets, and more than 90 were murdered. About 30,000 more were dragged off to concentration camps. Several hundred synagogues were burned to the ground, while fire fighters stood by, under orders from the Hitler government to act only to keep fires from spreading to property owned by non-Jews. An estimated 7,000 Jewish business were ransacked. The violence became known as Kristallnacht, the “Night of the Glass,” a reference to the widespread smashing of windows of Jewish homes and shops.
Ken Burns’ “The Roosevelts” emphasized that FDR was “the only leader of a democratic nation to dare denounce” the pogrom. Six days after the violence ended, Roosevelt told a press conference that he “could scarcely believe such things could occur” in the 20th century.
FDR also took two steps. He extended the visas of the approximately 15,000 German Jewish refugees who were then in the United States as tourists–but he also announced that liberalization of America’s immigration policy was “not in contemplation.” Roosevelt alsorecalled the U.S. ambassador from Germany for “consultations”
–but he rejected suggestions by some members of Congress to break diplomatic ties with the Hitler regime.
The narrator on “The Roosevelts” pointed out that Roosevelt’s temporary recall of the ambassador was “something neither Britain nor France dared do.”
When it came to token gestures, FDR did indeed surpass Britain and France. But when it came to meaningful action to help the Jews, it was another story.
In the weeks following Kristallnacht, Great Britain took in 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish refugee children (known as the Kindertransport project), 5,000 refugees who had been released from Nazi concentration camps on condition that they leave Germany, and thousands of young German Jewish women who were admitted as cooks and nannies.
France, which was in the midst of cracking down on undocumented Jewish refugees, was less generous. Nevertheless, in the months following Kristallnacht, it did agree to admit 1,000 German and Austrian Jewish children, eased the status of some illegal Jewish immigrants, and accepted 224 of the passengers on the refugee ship St. Louis, which was 224 more than the Roosevelt administration took in.
In any event, the real question is not how President Roosevelt compared to other heads of state, but what options were actually before him as he weighed how to respond to Kristallnacht.
Here are some of the most promising ones:
The governor and legislative assembly of the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory, offered to open their doors to Jewish refugees. FDR rejected the offer; he said Nazi spies disguised as Jewish refugees might sneak from the islands to the mainland.
Several members of Roosevelt’s cabinet, and some members of Congress, proposed opening the Alaska territory to refugees. The president said he would consider it only if no more than 10% of the immigrants were Jews.
College professors, students, rabbis, cantors, and their families were exempt from the quota limits. Roosevelt could have quietly told the State Department to be more lenient in approving their visas applications. He did not.
The British government suggested that the Roosevelt administration give unused British quota places (there were more than 60,000 left over each year) to German Jewish applicants. U.S. officials indignantly rebuffed the proposal as unwarranted interference in America’s domestic affairs.
When it came to FDR’s response to Kristallnacht, Ken Burns’ “The Roosevelts” got it wrong. The president’s actions were thin gestures that look even less impressive when one considers the other steps that were proposed to him at the time.