In a time in which U.S. officials, especially those in Congress, are tripping over themselves with accusations of anti-Semitism against people who fail to unconditionally support the policies and practices of the Israeli government, this might be a good time to remind ourselves of the anti-Semitism of one of America’s great historical icons, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as the officials who served him within the U.S. government.
We all know about the anti-Semitism of the Adolf Hitler regime in Nazi Germany. And we all know about the Holocaust.
But I’d venture to say that most Americans do not know about the anti-Semitism of the Franklin Roosevelt regime and the role that it indirectly played in the Holocaust. That’s because these things are not taught in the state’s indoctrination centers that are commonly called “public schools.”
Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933. Roosevelt became president in 1933. England declared war on Germany in September 1939. Even though the Hitler regime was treating German Jews horrifically throughout the 1930s, the actual Holocaust — the label placed on Nazi Germany’s murder of six million Jews and others — wasn’t launched until 1941, after the war had begun.
Throughout the 1930s, the Hitler regime was willing to let German Jews voluntarily leave Germany. If they had done so, obviously they would not have been killed in the Holocaust.
So, why didn’t they leave?
The answer is very simple. No country would take them. That includes the United States under the presidential regime of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
And why wouldn’t any country take them?
The answer is very simple: Anti-Semitism. Yes, the same anti-Semitism that afflicted the Hitler regime.
It stands to reason that if no country would accept German Jews, then that meant that they had to remain in Germany, where they were later murdered in the Holocaust.
So, how did the Roosevelt administration prevent German Jews from coming to the United States? That’s where America’s immigration-control system comes into play. Roosevelt used the immigration-control system to prevent German Jews from entering the United States and, therefore, relegated them to remaining in Germany, where they were later murdered in the Holocaust.
Under America’s immigration-control system, the federal government wields the authority to plan, control, manage, and direct the peaceful movements of people into the United States. Thus, when German Jews wanted to leave Nazi Germany and come to the United States, FDR simply declared that they couldn’t. That’s because, he said, “We have the quota system.”
What he was referring to was that under America’s immigration-control system, Germany had been assigned a quota that established a set number of immigrants from Germany who could enter the United States. Once that quota was met, the U.S. government wielded the power to simply shut the door to others who wished to enter the United States.
It’s worth mentioning that under a system of open immigration, Roosevelt could not have used immigration controls in this malignant manner. That’s because under a system of open immigration, people are free to enter the United States without governmental permission.
Open immigration, of course, was America’s founding system. America had essentially declared to the world: “If you are suffering under tyranny, oppression, famines, war, or the like, we will not send our army to save you. But if you are able and willing to escape, know that there is always one country to which you can flee that will never forcibly return you.”
Thus, under America’s founding immigration system, our nation would have been a sanctuary for Jews and everyone else who got murdered in the Holocaust. Ironically, if such had been the case, there is a probability that the state of Israel would never have come into existence. After all, why would Jews need a sanctuary state if America already served that purpose?
The St. Louis in Havana harbor.
In 1939, shortly before England declared war on Germany, the ocean liner St. Louis sailed from Germany to Cuba. It was filled with 954 Jewish refugees. When it got to Havana harbor, Cuban officials would not permit the refugees to disembark. That’s because the Cuban regime was as anti-Semitic as the Hitler and Roosevelt regimes were.
The St. Louis set sail for Miami harbor. Even through the Roosevelt regime knew what awaited these refugees back in Germany, the order was issued to the U.S. Coast Guard: Do not permit even one Jewish refugee to set foot in the United States.
The St. Louis had no choice but to set sail back to Germany. At the last minute, some of the European countries and Great Britain agreed to accept the refugees. The Hitler regime later murdered 254 of them in the Holocaust.
If you haven’t seen the 1976 movie Voyage of the Damned, I highly recommend it. Starring Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow, James Mason, Orson Wells, and others, it depicts the story of the St. Louis.
When it comes to anti-Semitism, there is plenty of hypocrisy, especially within the U.S. government.
