Episode 2 of #USandTheHolocaustPBS opens in 1938 with Kristallnacht. Even Americans who didn’t want to let in Jewish refugees spoke out against the Nazi violence.
@deborahlipstadt: “This is a country seemingly going crazy. Seemingly completely out of control.”
@deborahlipstadt: “This is a country seemingly going crazy. Seemingly completely out of control.”
https://twitter.com/KenBurns/status/1572009678204182529
FDR recalled US ambassador to Germany—the only world leader to do so. He allowed Jews in US on tourist visas to stay.
In surveys at the time, Americans deplored the violence but opposed lifting the immigration quotas, which only Congress had power to do.
In surveys at the time, Americans deplored the violence but opposed lifting the immigration quotas, which only Congress had power to do.
Al Smith (D), Thomas E. Dewey (R) and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen denounced the Nazis’ violent persecution of German Jews.
Even in the midst of Depression, American leaders stood for human rights and freedom. Values that later animated presidents from JFK to Reagan.
Even in the midst of Depression, American leaders stood for human rights and freedom. Values that later animated presidents from JFK to Reagan.
20,000 members of virulently antisemitic German American Bund packed Madison Square Garden on Feb. 20, 1939, to hear leader Fritz Kuhn call for “white gentile-ruled United States.” Other speakers denounced “Frank D. Rosenfeld’s” “Jew Deal.”
A @FortuneMagazine poll found that only 1 in 10 favored lifting quotas, 4 in 10 felt Jews had “too much power” in the US. 85% of US Protestants, 84% of US Catholics and 25% of US Jews (!) opposed giving sanctuary to the refugees, the poll found.
A @KenBurns documentary always has telling details—like footage of people in Times Square watching the electronic zipper with news of the invasion of Poland. #USandTheHolocaustPBS
Nazi sympathizer Charles A. Lindbergh’s radio broadcasts calling for US neutrality: chilling.
“I am absolutely convinced that Lindbergh is a Nazi,” FDR told a friend.
Philip Roth’s dystopian “Plot Against America” imagines a Lindbergh victory.
“I am absolutely convinced that Lindbergh is a Nazi,” FDR told a friend.
Philip Roth’s dystopian “Plot Against America” imagines a Lindbergh victory.
An amazing fact: More Jews lived in Łódź than in Berlin and Vienna combined.
And I had no idea Anne Frank’s neighbor and playmate Eva Geiringer is living in Britain, age 93. She was one month older than Anne.
And I had no idea Anne Frank’s neighbor and playmate Eva Geiringer is living in Britain, age 93. She was one month older than Anne.
The #USandTheHolocaustPBS has been criticized for its sympathetic portrayal of FDR. I’m no historian, but this portrait of a leader who was evolving, and trying to bring a nation along with him, reminds me of the Lincoln depicted in @KenBurns’s “The Civil War” (1990).
1940: FDR and his Republican opponent, Wendell Willkie, agreed that US needed to aid UK. Meanwhile Lindbergh’s America First Committee (started by Yale Law students!) rallied 800k against US entry into the war. FDR denounced him as an appeaser.
In 1941, State Department made it *harder* for refugees to enter, given the supposed fear that Nazi agents would pose as refugees and infiltrate the US.
Among those trapped were Otto Frank and his family.
Among those trapped were Otto Frank and his family.
The film contains incredible footage of the Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads that carried out “Holocaust by bullets” in eastern Europe. Some were trophy photos taken to send to families back home.
The #USandTheHolocaustPBS powerfully juxtaposes the best of America (Jewish refugees arriving in NYC) and the worst (Charles Lindbergh accusing the British, the Jews and FDR’s administration of pushing the US into war). It was ever thus.
Following Pearl Harbor, Hitler thought US would be tied up in the Pacific and was a decayed society, “half-Judaized” and “half-Negrified.”
Another reminder that antisemitism and anti-Black racism have often gone hand in hand. #USandTheHolocaustPBS
Another reminder that antisemitism and anti-Black racism have often gone hand in hand. #USandTheHolocaustPBS
This is such an important film. Every American should watch it. pbs.org/kenburns/us-an…
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