FDR tried to save Jewish refugees during Second World War, book claims
Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to save thousands of Jewish refugees during the Second World War, a new book has claimed, disputing the widely held view that America's wartime presdient was indifferent to the fate of Europe's Jews.
The book, "Refugees and Rescue," claims that Roosevelt developed plans in 1938 for the United States to fill its immigration quota with 27,000 Jews from Germany and Austria and to send others to British-held Palestine and friendly nations in Africa and Latin America.
The claim that Roosevelt actively sought ways to help Jews escape Europe before the war began in 1939 challenges the widely accepted view that he ignored warnings of Adolf Hitler's plan to exterminate them.
The American government's refusal to allow the SS St Louis, a German ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees, to dock at a US port in 1939 is often cited as evidence of the president's lack of interest in the fate of the Jews.
The book is based primarily on diaries of James G. McDonald, the League of Nations' top official concerned with refugees from Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The book, "Refugees and Rescue," claims that Roosevelt developed plans in 1938 for the United States to fill its immigration quota with 27,000 Jews from Germany and Austria and to send others to British-held Palestine and friendly nations in Africa and Latin America.
The claim that Roosevelt actively sought ways to help Jews escape Europe before the war began in 1939 challenges the widely accepted view that he ignored warnings of Adolf Hitler's plan to exterminate them.
The American government's refusal to allow the SS St Louis, a German ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees, to dock at a US port in 1939 is often cited as evidence of the president's lack of interest in the fate of the Jews.
The book is based primarily on diaries of James G. McDonald, the League of Nations' top official concerned with refugees from Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s.
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