Beyond Belief (62 page)

26
.
Time
, October 18, 1943, p. 21;
Los Angeles Examiner
, October 6, 1943, p. 13;
New York Times
, October 7, 1943, p. 14;
Washington Post
, October 7, 1943, p. 1;
Washington Star
, October 7, 1943, p. 6;
Washington Times Herald
, October 7, 1943, p. 3;
New York Post
, October 6, 1943. The
Los Angeles Times
and
New York Herald Tribune
were among the many papers which ignored the event.

27
. Palestine Statehood Group Papers, Yale Manuscript and Archives, box 4, folder 1, as cited in Sarah E. Peck, “The Campaign for an American Response to the Nazi Holocaust, 1943-45,
” Journal of Contemporary History
, vol. 15 (April 1980), pp. 367-400.

28
. See, for example,
Los Angeles Examiner
, December 11, 1943, p. 8;
Los Angeles Times
, December 11, 1943, p. 8;
New York Times
, December 11, 1943, p. 1;
Christian Science Monitor
, December 11, 1943, p. 8;
Chicago Tribune
, December 11, 1943, p. 8. Wyman,
Abandonment
, pp. 197, 383, n. 1.

29
. “Aid by the United States to European Refugees: Testimony of Breckinridge Long,”
Interpreter Releases
, January 10, 1944, pp. 1-15; U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Hearings, Resolution Providing for the Establishment by the Executive of a Commission to Effectuate the Rescue of the Jewish People of Europe
, 78th Cong., 1st sess., 1943, pp. 44-45; Saul S. Friedman,
No Haven for the Oppressed: United States Policy Toward Jewish Refugees, 1938-1945
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), p. 188ff.; Henry Feingold,
The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1945
(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 230;
New York Herald Tribune
, December 11, 1943. When Long's testimony was released to the press, the State Department, expecting it to quiet criticism of the American record on immigration, distributed it to the diplomatic representatives of other countries.
FRUS
, 1943, vol. I, pp. 237-238.
Nation
, December 25, 1943, p. 748;
New Republic
, December 20, 1943, p. 867;
New York Times
, December 11, 1943, p. 1, December 12, 1943, p. 8, December 31, 1943, p. 14.

30
.
Nation
, December 25, 1943, p. 748;
New Republic
, December 20, 1943, p. 867;
PM
, December 20, 1943, pp. 1, 3;
New York Post
, December 11, 1943, pp. 1, 3, December 13, 1943, p. 23;
New York World Telegram
, December 13, 1943, p. 21. For additional Hearst editorial attention to this issue see also
Los Angeles Examiner
, December 11, 1943, p. 1;
New York Journal American
, December 22, 1943, p. 9, December 28, 1943, p. 16;
New York Times
, December 12, 1943, p. 8. Wyman,
Abandonment
, p. 383, n. 18, n. 19.

31
.
New York Times
, February 6, 1944.

32
.
Los Angeles Times
, January 23, 1944, p. 4;
Christian Science Monitor
, January 24, 1944;
Washington Post
, January 25, 1944;
New York Post
,
January 25, 1944. When Morgenthau originally received the report from his subordinates, it was entitled “Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of the Jews.” When he gave it to Roosevelt, the title was changed to “Personal Report to the President.” Michael Mashberg, “Documents Concerning the American State Department and the Stateless European Jews, 1942-1944,”
Jewish Social Studies
, vol. 39 (Winter-Spring 1977), pp. 163-179. Morgenthau had already complained about the State Department's behavior. On November 24 Morgenthau wrote to Hull complaining about the State Department's delay in approving transfer licenses to help evacuate Jews from Roumania. He declared the three and a half months delay “most difficult to understand.” DS 862.4016/2297.

33
.
New Republic
, February 7, 1944, p. 164;
New York Post
, March 9, 1944. Mowrer was not the only one who believed that the President had acted because of political exigencies. The British thought so as well. John Pehle, Director of the WRB, wrote Under Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius in March 1944 of the importance of convincing the British that the establishment of the WRB was not “a political move in an election year.”
FRUS
, 1944, vol. I, p. 1005. The
Christian Science Monitor
was more positive about the WRB's potential. January 24, 1944, p. 11.

34
.
New York Daily Mirror
, January 28, 1944;
Los Angeles Examiner
, January 28, 1944, p. 12;
Washington Post
, January 25, February 8, 1944;
Christian Science Monitor
, January 24, 1944;
PM
, February 7, 1944.

35
. David Halberstam,
The Powers That Be
(New York: Knopf, 1979), p. 517; “Bystander to Genocide,”
Village Voice
, December 18, 1984, p. 30.

36
.
Washington Post
, March 12, 1944;
New Republic
, March 20, 1944, p. 366.

37
.
Christian Science Monitor
, March 24, 1944, p. 1;
New York Times
, March 25, 1944, p. 1;
New York Herald Tribune
, March 25, 1944, p. 1;
Washington Times Herald
, March 25, 1944, p. 1;
Los Angeles Times
, March 25, 1944, p. 1. For other warnings see
New York Times
, June 18, 1944, p. 24, June 27, 1944, p. 6, July 10, 1944, p. 9, July 15, 1944, p. 3; Wyman,
Abandonment
, pp. 256, 397.

38
.
Baltimore Sun
, March 25, 1944;
New York Times
, March 25, 1944 (emphasis added). Anne O'Hare McCormick, writing in the
New York Times
, explained Roosevelt's willingness to speak out in this manner as motivated by the Administration's concern over the criticism of its paltry rescue efforts. The critiques were “so vocal that the policy makers cannot ignore it.” The British were opposed to a statement by Roosevelt and let the Americans know of their opposition. Pehle pointedly criticized them for their opposition. Feingold, p. 252.

39
. Wyman,
Abandonment
, p. 256.

40
.
New Republic
, April 3, 1944, p. 452.

41
.
New York Post
, April 5, 1944, p. 24, April 15, 1944, p. 10, April 21, 1944, p. 4, April 22, 1944.

42
. It is unclear who proposed the idea to the WRB, though there is indication that the proposal came from Peter Bergson. Two weeks after the creation of the Board, Bergson gave Josiah DuBois, a WRB staff member, a memorandum with proposals for action. The memorandum called for the establishment of temporary havens for refugees who had reached a “safe” area. By moving them to these havens, the way would be cleared for additional refugees to enter the “safe” areas. Papers of the WRB, box 7, “Memorandum Submitted by the Washington Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe,” February 7, 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. Sharon Lowenstein, “New Deal for Refugees,”
American Jewish History
, March 1982, pp. 325-341. Actually a similar idea had been proposed by State Department official Philip W. Bonsal in April 1942. See
FRUS
, 1942, vol. I, pp. 455-456.

43
.
New York Times
, May 4, 1943, p. 18.

44
.
Christian Century
, May 24, 1944, p. 636. Even some midwestern papers, which generally were opposed to anything that had even a faint ring of liberalization of immigration laws, supported the idea. In an editorial entitled “Put Up or Shut Up,” the
Terre Haute
(Indiana)
Star
espoused the acceptance of free ports and decried America's demand that other countries accept refugee Jews while it “refuse[d] to admit any part of these sufferers to the United States beyond the present small, pre-war quotas.”
Terre Haute
(Indiana)
Star
, May 12, 1944. The situation in Hungary, the creation of the WRB, and Grafton's suggestion stimulated public discussion and debate regarding some change in American immigration and rescue policy.
New York Post
, April 28, 1944;
New York Times
, April 1, 1944;
Christian Science Monitor
, April 11, April 12, April 19, 1944.

45
.
In Fact
, April 26, 1944, p. 2;
Miami Herald
, June 15, 1944, p. 6A, July 28, 1944, p. 6A, September 28, 1944, p. 4A. For restrictionists and antisemities who opposed plan see Wyman,
Abandonment
, p. 267.

46
.
New Republic
, May 15, 1944, p. 666.

47
.
Commonweal
, May 12, 1944, pp. 76-77.

48
.
New York Times
, April 1, April 19, 1944;
New York Post
, April 28, 1944;
Christian Science Monitor
, April 11, April 12, April 19, 1944; Lowenstein, p. 334. There were other signs that the public attitude might be softening in this regard. A Gallup poll revealed that Americans had changed their opinion regarding the shipment of food to children in German-occupied countries. Whereas in September
1940, prior to American entry into the war, a substantial majority opposed sending food, 65 percent were in favor (13 percent neutral and 22 percent opposed) in February 1944. People felt that despite the risks that some of the food might fall into enemy hands, everything possible should be done to help the children. The WRB thought the statistic significant enough to make special note of it and keep it in its file.
Washington Post
, February 12, 1944; United States War Refugee Board,
Final Summary Report of the Executive Director, War Refugee Board
(Washington: Government Printing Office, September 15, 1945), p. 45.

49
. On May 25 former New York Governor Al Smith held a news conference to announce that seventy-two prominent Americans had signed a petition urging the President to establish temporary havens for refugees. The supporters included a former Vice President of the United States, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the governors of eighteen states, four Nobel Prize winners, thirteen university and college presidents, and prominent industrialists and labor figures.
Contemporary Jewish Record
, June, 1944, p. 401ff.; U.S., Congress, Senate, S. Res. 297, 78th Cong., 2d sess., 1944, vol. 90, part 4; Lowenstein, p. 337.

50
.
New York Times
, May 19, 1944, p. 18;
Christian Century
, May 24, 1944, p. 636.

51
.
Nation
, June 10, 1944, pp. 670-671.

52
. Roosevelt was obviously not strongly committed to the idea because he continued to suggest that better places could be found overseas—for instance, in the Mediterranean resorts with “numerous hotel facilities.” Roosevelt chose the name “Emergency Refugee Shelter” for the havens because it denoted the transitory nature of the refuge. The refugees were to be sheltered on an emergency and temporary basis only. Actually by the time
The Nation
published Stone's letter the President had already indicated that he favored the idea, but his statement, the magazine noted, was so “indefinite” that it believed Stone's pleas for public pressure were as “valid as they were before Mr. Roosevelt spoke.”
Newsweek
, June 12, 1944, p. 32;
Nation
, June 10, 1944, p. 670;
New York Post
, June 1, 1944;
New York Times
, June 10, 1944, p. 1, June 13, 1944, p. 1;
Washington Post
, June 13, 1944; Wyman,
Abandonment
, pp. 263-265.

53
.
PM
, August 2, 1944, p. 2;
Chicago Tribune
, August 5, 1944, p. 1;
New York Times
, August 5, 1944, p. 1;
New York Herald Tribune
, August 5, 1944, p. 1;
Washington Post
, June 11, 1944; Sarah E. Peck, “The Campaign for an American Response to the Nazi Holocaust,
” Journal of Contemporary History
, vol. 15 (1980), p. 399; Wyman,
Abandonment
, p. 266. The arrival of the refugees may have aroused some concerns.
It may have well been pure coincidence that the
New York Herald Tribune
chose to publish three days prior to the arrival of the Oswego-bound refugees a lengthy editorial extolling the fact that immigration had fallen since 1931. It attributed this “wholesome development” to the restrictions and “selectivity” of American immigration laws. Two months later it published an even more strident editorial on the same theme. The potential arrival of a group of refugees and the liberation of portions of Europe may have forced the
New York Herald Tribune
to focus on those who would “flock” to these shores and not on those facing destruction.
New York Herald Tribune
, August 2, October 3, 1944. For newspaper coverage of the refugees' arrival see the collection of newspaper clippings in papers of the War Relocation Authority, Emergency Refugee Shelter, Temporary Havens in the United States, folder 5, record group 210, National Archives, Washington.

54
.
Washington Post
, March 22, 1944, p. 2;
New York Herald Tribune
, March 22, 1944; Martin Gilbert,
Auschwitz and the Allies
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981), p. 234.