Were Americans the heroic liberators of Nazi concentration camp victims in 1945, or were they knowing and apathetic bystanders to unspeakable brutality and annihilation for a dozen years? Historians have long debated what the United States knew about Hitlers gruesome Final Solution, when they knew it, and whether they should have intervened sooner. Wrapping historical narrative around 60 primary sources — including news clippings, speeches, letters, magazine articles, and government reports — Abzug chronicles the unfolding events in Nazi Germany while tracing the resurgence of anti-Semitism and tightening immigration policies in the United States. He relies on the American journalistic sources through which U.S. citizens read about events in Europe to provide students a real context to understand Americans horror when they realized that the reports of the Holocaust were not exaggerations or fabrications. An epilogue examines the complexity of historical interpretations and moral judgments that have evolved since 1945. Useful apparatus includes photographs, a chronology, questions for consideration, a bibliography, and an index.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-220) and index.
Foreword Preface
Introduction: Facing the Horrors
PART ONE: THE FIRST YEARS OF THE NAZI REGIME, 1933-1935
American Jewish Committee, from The Jews in Nazi Germany, 1933
The Official Decrees and Measures against the Jews
Execution of Decrees
The Effect of the Anti-Jewish Measures
Acts of Violence against Jews Since Hitler Became Chancellor
Letters of the American Friends Service Committee
Clarence E. Pickett, Letter to J. S. Conning, May 5, 1932
Richard L. Cary, Letter to Clarence E. Pickett, June 28, 1932
Clarence E. Pickett, Letter to Gilbert L. MacMaster, March 30 (typed April 3), 1933
Richard L. Cary, Letter to Clarence E. Pickett, July 23, 1933
The Anti-Nazi Boycott
G. E. Harriman, Anti-Nazi Boycott Circular Letter, 1933
Jewish Labor Committee, Anti-Nazi Poster, 1934
Mainstream Views
Robert E. Asher, "A Jew Protests Against Protesters," Christian Century, April 12, 1933
"Mass Meeting Protests Hitler's Anti-Jewish Program," Christian Century, April 26, 1933
Walter Lippmann, "Hitler's Speech," The Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1933
Personal American Press Reports from Hitler's Germany
"Editor Holds Riots Inspired by Nazis," New York Times, July 26, 1935
Reverend L. M. Birkhead, "Nazis Ask World to Combat Jews," New York Times, July 28, 1935
PART TWO: EXCLUSION, EMIGRATION, AND WAR, 1935-1941
"Germany: Hitler Decrees Swastika Reich Flag; Bars Intermarriage; Relegates Jews to Dark Ages," Newsweek, September 21, 1935
"Germany: Jews Begin to Feel a Soft Spot in the Iron Heel," Newsweek, September 28, 1935
Participation in the 1936 Olympics: Jews, African Americans, and Others
"Statement of Non-Jewish Advocates of Boycott," The New York Times, October 25, 1935
Ernest Lee Jahncke, Letter to Count Henri Baillet-Latour, November 25, 1935
"NAACP Asks AAU to Abandon Olympics," Pittsburgh Courier, December 14, 1935
"The Black Eagles," Pittsburgh Courier, July 11, 1936
Refugees, Kristallnacht, and Coughlin
"Refugees," Time, July 18, 1938
Louis Lochner, Letter to Betty and Bobby, November 28, 1938
Henry Morgenthau, Diary Entry, November 16, 1938
Exchange between Raymond Geist and George Messersmith, December 5 and 20, 1938
Father Coughlin, from Am I an Anti-Semite? December 11, 1938
"Topics of the Times: Refugee Ship," The New York Times, June 8, 1939
An Atlantic Monthly Symposium on Jews
Albert Jay Nock, from "The Jewish Problem in America," Atlantic Monthly, June and July 1941
James Marshall, from "The Anti-Semitic Problem in America," Atlantic Monthly, August 1941
Frances Strauss, "The Intermarriage," Atlantic Monthly, September 1941
The Lindbergh Controversy
"FDR Creating War Incidents, Lindbergh Says," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 11, 1941
"Lindbergh's Nazi Pattern," New Republic, September 22, 1941
"The Forbidden Theme," Christian Century, September 24, 1941
PART THREE: IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE, 1942-1945
The Nazi War against the Jews
American Knowledge and Comprehension
"Wandering Jews," Time, December 15, 1941
Michael Williams, "Views and Reviews," The Commonweal, December 26, 1941
Reinhold Niebuhr, "Jews after the War," The Nation, February 21 and 28, 1942
Varian Fry, "The Massacre of the Jews," New Republic, December 21, 1942
Henry Morgenthau, Diary Entry, December 3, 1942
Charles Clayton Morrison, "Horror Stories from Poland," Christian Century, December 9, 1942
Charles Clayton Morrison, "Polish Atrocities Are Entered in the Books," Christian Century, December 30, 1942
Tosha Bialer, "Behind the Wall (Life--and Death--in Warsaw's Ghetto)," Collier's, February 20 and 27, 1943
Ben Hecht, "Remember Us," Reader's Digest, February 1943
Examples of Anti-Semitic Doggerel
Freda Kirchwey, "While the Jews Die," Nation, March 13, 1943
From Minutes of the American Delegation at the Bermuda Conference, April 20, 1943
Freda Kirchwey, "A Program of Inaction," Nation, June 5, 1943
Bill Downs, "Blood at Babii Yar--Kiev's Atrocity Story," Newsweek, December 6, 1943
Alfred Kazin, "In Every Voice, in Every Ban," New Republic, January 10, 1944
Fred Eastman, "A Reply to Screamers," Christian Century, February 16, 1944
From Final Summary Report of The Executive Director, War Refugee Board, Washington, September 15, 1945
Extermination Camps Revealed
Richard Lauterbach, "Murder, Inc.," Time, September 11, 1944
"Biggest Atrocity Story Breaks in Poland," Christian Century, September 13, 1944
Jan Karski, "Polish Death Camp," Collier's, October 14, 1944
Views of the Liberations
J. D. Pletcher, The Americans Have Come--At Last! 1945
Edward R. Murrow, Broadcast Transcript from Buchenwald, April 15, 1945
James Agee, from Agee on Film, May 19, 1945
"Gazing into the Pit," Christian Century, May 9, 1945
Epilogue: The Changing Historical Perspective
APPENDICES
Chronology of Events Related to the Holocaust (1933-1945)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index