Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.: Accused of sugarcoating FDR's views on Jews
ARTHUR SCHLESINGER JR.'s Journals may indeed reveal him to have been an egoist and name-dropper, as P. J. O'Rourke asserts in "Dear Diary, I Think I'm in Love" (December 31/January 7). But far worse was Schlesinger's willingness to sometimes omit from his history books facts that reflected poorly on his heroes. Consider how Schlesinger handled the question of Franklin D. Roosevelt's response to the Holocaust. In various articles and in his 2000 memoir Schlesinger claimed FDR "did more than anyone else to save" Jews from the Nazis. Roosevelt "did not have an anti-Semitic bone in his body," Schlesinger approvingly quoted Trude Lash as saying. But Schlesinger knew more than he was letting on.
In 1959, while working on his laudatory history of the New Deal, Schlesinger interviewed former U.S. senator Burton K. Wheeler and obtained a memorandum Wheeler prepared after speaking with FDR on August 4, 1939. Discussing the presidential aspirations of Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Roosevelt said to Wheeler that if Hull ran, Mrs. Hull's part-Jewish background "would be raised" by his opponents. "Mrs. Hull is about one quarter Jewish," FDR said. "You and I, Burt, are old English and Dutch stock. We know who our ancestors are. We know there is no Jewish blood in our veins, but a lot of these people do not know whether there is Jewish blood in their veins or not."
But Schlesinger kept the document under wraps. In his writings about Roosevelt, anti-semitism, Jewish refugees, and the Holocaust, he never mentioned that he knew of FDR's remark about the undesirability of "Jewish blood." But the issue of FDR's views on race did not go away. In 2001, Professor Greg Robinson revealed articles Roosevelt wrote in 1923 and 1925 claiming "the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results," and urging restrictions on the citizenship and property rights of "non-assimilable immigrants." Still there was no comment from Schlesinger on the role of race in FDR's thinking.
Two years ago, I wrote Schlesinger to ask his view of the "Jewish blood" remark. In his reply, he defended FDR's statement as "a neutral comment about people of mixed ancestry." Maybe so. Or maybe it was additional evidence that Roosevelt's views on race could have played a part in shaping his closed-doors refugee policy during the Holocaust. Unfortunately, Arthur Schlesinger did more to cloud the issue than to clarify it.
RAFAEL MEDOFF
Director
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies Washington, D.C.
Read entire article at RAFAEL MEDOFF, in a letter to the editor of the Weekly Standard
In 1959, while working on his laudatory history of the New Deal, Schlesinger interviewed former U.S. senator Burton K. Wheeler and obtained a memorandum Wheeler prepared after speaking with FDR on August 4, 1939. Discussing the presidential aspirations of Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Roosevelt said to Wheeler that if Hull ran, Mrs. Hull's part-Jewish background "would be raised" by his opponents. "Mrs. Hull is about one quarter Jewish," FDR said. "You and I, Burt, are old English and Dutch stock. We know who our ancestors are. We know there is no Jewish blood in our veins, but a lot of these people do not know whether there is Jewish blood in their veins or not."
But Schlesinger kept the document under wraps. In his writings about Roosevelt, anti-semitism, Jewish refugees, and the Holocaust, he never mentioned that he knew of FDR's remark about the undesirability of "Jewish blood." But the issue of FDR's views on race did not go away. In 2001, Professor Greg Robinson revealed articles Roosevelt wrote in 1923 and 1925 claiming "the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results," and urging restrictions on the citizenship and property rights of "non-assimilable immigrants." Still there was no comment from Schlesinger on the role of race in FDR's thinking.
Two years ago, I wrote Schlesinger to ask his view of the "Jewish blood" remark. In his reply, he defended FDR's statement as "a neutral comment about people of mixed ancestry." Maybe so. Or maybe it was additional evidence that Roosevelt's views on race could have played a part in shaping his closed-doors refugee policy during the Holocaust. Unfortunately, Arthur Schlesinger did more to cloud the issue than to clarify it.
RAFAEL MEDOFF
Director
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies Washington, D.C.