Holocaust and the United States

Matt McKeon

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This three part Ken Burns documentary recounts the too little, too late response of the US to the Holocaust.

One historian begins the series with a paean to American achievements and ideals, then concludes with, "this isn't one of those events."

The villians: Madison Grant, anti-semitic eugenicist, Henry Ford, anti-semitic crank, and Breckinridge Long, anti-semitic State Department official who should have got the Iron Cross for ensuring that the Nazis got to kill a lot of people that didn't have to die.

I almost forget, anti-semitic aviator, Charles Lindbergh, star of the America First movement.
 

jgoodguy

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An article by Jonathan Marwil in Antisemitism, A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution claims that "no one who ever knew Lindbergh thought him antisemitic" and that claims of his antisemitism were solely tied to the remarks he made in that one speech.[215]

Levy, Richard S. "Lindbergh, Charles (1902–1974)" in Levy (2005), vol. 1, pp.423–424

Add Father Coughlin and Louis T. McFadden to the list.

A good question is, 'was antisemitism deviant or normal in US Society of the time'. If normal for the time, then we have come a hell of a long way.
 

5fish

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Madison Grant was a over-achiever for evil...


Madison Grant was a lawyer and wildlife conservationist who advocated for eugenics policies in the US during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In his 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race; or, The Racial Basis of European History, Grant argued that what he called the Nordic race, which originated from northwest Europe, was biologically and culturally superior to all other people, including other Europeans. Grant drew from his now-discredited claims to lobby for laws in the US that restricted immigration, legalized sterilizing people against their will, and prohibited interracial marriage. Adolf Hitler referred to Grant’s book as his Bible and it was listed during the Nuremberg Trials in the late 1940s as evidence that eugenics did not solely originate in Germany. Grant’s advocacy of eugenics shaped policy that restricted reproductive freedom and immigration in the US and helped legitimize genocide in Europe.
 

Matt McKeon

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Madison Grant was a over-achiever for evil...


Madison Grant was a lawyer and wildlife conservationist who advocated for eugenics policies in the US during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In his 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race; or, The Racial Basis of European History, Grant argued that what he called the Nordic race, which originated from northwest Europe, was biologically and culturally superior to all other people, including other Europeans. Grant drew from his now-discredited claims to lobby for laws in the US that restricted immigration, legalized sterilizing people against their will, and prohibited interracial marriage. Adolf Hitler referred to Grant’s book as his Bible and it was listed during the Nuremberg Trials in the late 1940s as evidence that eugenics did not solely originate in Germany. Grant’s advocacy of eugenics shaped policy that restricted reproductive freedom and immigration in the US and helped legitimize genocide in Europe.
I hate this guy.
 

Matt McKeon

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An article by Jonathan Marwil in Antisemitism, A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution claims that "no one who ever knew Lindbergh thought him antisemitic" and that claims of his antisemitism were solely tied to the remarks he made in that one speech.[215]

Levy, Richard S. "Lindbergh, Charles (1902–1974)" in Levy (2005), vol. 1, pp.423–424

Add Father Coughlin and Louis T. McFadden to the list.

A good question is, 'was antisemitism deviant or normal in US Society of the time'. If normal for the time, then we have come a hell of a long way.
A recent bio by A. Scott Berg describes him as holding common anti-semitic beliefs, not "deviant" for the time. But unfortunately those beliefs led him into a very dark and destructive place.
 

jgoodguy

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A recent bio by A. Scott Berg describes him as holding common anti-semitic beliefs, not "deviant" for the time. But unfortunately those beliefs led him into a very dark and destructive place.
Indeed, it would have been ideal if he had an innate sense of social justice. If I remember my sociology lessons, had he been pro Jewish, he would have been deviant and ignored. Progress is a process often not efferent nor straight, and with lots of suffering.
The Leo Frank incident also led to a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). By the mid-1920s, the KKK claimed to have four million members, more than all the Jews in the United States. In the midst of this turmoil and despite protestations at the time, President Woodrow Wilson nominated Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court in 1916. As the first Jew to serve on the Court, Justice Brandeis had to endure bitter taunts, particularly from fellow justice James C. McReynolds. In the 1920s, Henry Ford, who revolutionized mass production in American industry, relentlessly blamed Jewish Americans for many of the nation's ills in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. It was only after World War II that barriers to Jewish Americans began to dissipate in America.

During the 1930's, Americans began to read about growing anti-Semitism and discrimination against European Jews. At the start of World War II, in 1941, reports of atrocities against Jews began to be reported by eyewitnesses and in the media.

Here are film clips and excerpts from the companion book that reflect on how Jewish Americans responded to the Holocaust. Despite efforts by Jewish Americans, such as Rabbi Stephen Wise, the Roosevelt administration did not do everything in its power to respond to the reports of German atrocities against the Jews of Europe. President Roosevelt had many concerns while fighting the war, among them fearing the war would be misconstrued as a Jew war, as one commentator recalled. One extensive clip explores how the American government reacted at first to the news of the atrocities and how FDR, being pushed by Henry Morgenthau, then Secretary of the Treasury, tried to save the European Jews.
 

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O' Be Joyful

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Joshism

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A good question is, 'was antisemitism deviant or normal in US Society of the time'. If normal for the time, then we have come a hell of a long way
Many Jewish people will tell you antisemitism remains a problem today.

I have always found it hard to identify someone as Jewish unless they belong to a denomination that prescribes a specific mode of dress, like wearing a yarmulke in public.

How do we define antisemitism today? Obviously, it includes a Holocaust deniers and similar conspiracy theorists. If you're gunning down synagogues or spraypainting it's a pretty clear.

But what about anti-theists and other people who are opposed to Judaism consistent with their opposition to other religions or types of religious practice?

Antisemitism has always been a messy question because "Jew" is both a religion and an ethic group, and about the only one where the Venn diagram is nearly a circle.

I had a strange encounter with fears of antisemitism a few years ago. I wrote an article in which, in passing, I described an individual as a "Jewish architect." It was meant literally; he even designed prominent synagogues. The magazine was published without anyone thinking anything of it. One of their subscribers and major donors, who was Jewish, was especially upset by this wording, to the point where the magazine printed an apology in the next issue. I was left baffled. I thought there was a desire for more acknowledgement of minority contributions to American history?
 

O' Be Joyful

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I thought there was a desire for more acknowledgement of minority contributions to American history?

Never underestimate the closure of what was once called the Melting Pot. Hate and degradation is as Sure as Hell in this World.
 

jgoodguy

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Many Jewish people will tell you antisemitism remains a problem today.
Lots of older Americans will tell you antioldpeopleism remains a problem today.
I had a strange encounter with fears of antisemitism a few years ago. I wrote an article in which, in passing, I described an individual as a "Jewish architect." It was meant literally; he even designed prominent synagogues. The magazine was published without anyone thinking anything of it. One of their subscribers and major donors, who was Jewish, was especially upset by this wording, to the point where the magazine printed an apology in the next issue. I was left baffled. I thought there was a desire for more acknowledgement of minority contributions to American history?
There are days I wish the US was strictly Anglo/Saxon/Scots Irish.

Why is the term Oriental offensive?

Oriental is offensive mainly because it has a Eurocentric origin – Asians are east of European countries. In the past, the Orient was Asia, for the most part. Some people still accept more the term Oriental for Asian things, but it’s probably better to skip it altogether – Asian is better and it’s even a syllable shorter!

Frank Wu, a law professor at Howard University, told the NY Times, “The word ‘Oriental’ is not inherently negative. It’s associated with a time period when Asians had a subordinate status. ‘Oriental’ is like the word ‘negro.’ It conjures up an era. For many Asian Americans, it’s not just this term; it’s about much more. It’s about your legitimacy to be here.”

Don’t use Oriental to refer to Asians!
 

Joshism

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Did you just plead Guilty?
I'll be honest: I don't really understand why ageism and ableism are considered on-par with racism, sexism, and the various other negative isms.

Physical and mental capability declines with age. It happens to everyone; the only question is how much of each, how quickly, and at what age. Disabled people are, by definition, less able.
 

jgoodguy

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I'll be honest: I don't really understand why ageism and ableism are considered on-par with racism, sexism, and the various other negative isms.

Physical and mental capability declines with age. It happens to everyone; the only question is how much of each, how quickly, and at what age. Disabled people are, by definition, less able.
All are human attributes, age, sex, color, religion, and so on. Seems to me that denying employment to a 40 year old is not different than denying employment to an Irishman, black, or female.
 

Joshism

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All are human attributes, age, sex, color, religion, and so on. Seems to me that denying employment to a 40 year old is not different than denying employment to an Irishman, black, or female.
There's a lot more to that sort of thing than whether you're willing to hire them.

Reverse ageism is also a thing for hiring. There are some positions of responsibility that can legally be assigned to an 18 year old, or even a 16 year old, that an employer might not want to. They would rather it be an older, more mature, more experienced adult. Nobody minds that sort of ageism.
 

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I saw the program listed the other night so I taped it realizing it was episode 3.episode's 1 and 2 are on tommorrow morning.i din't know it was a Ken Burns program.
 

jgoodguy

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As the only wealthy country in the world where mortality rates are climbing, the United States is in the midst of a social crisis (some new data for Scotland suggests similar patterns, although not on the same scale) . The trend is primarily driven by preventable “deaths of despair”—suicides, drug overdose, and alcohol related deaths—among less than college-educated whites in their middle-aged years. In contrast, blacks and Hispanics, who have lower levels of life expectancy and objectively face greater disadvantages, have been making gradual progress and remain significantly more optimistic than whites .​
Deaths of despair are most prevalent in the American heartland, in places where manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs have disappeared, and where the communities that formerly supported these industries are experiencing high associated social costs. The loss of purposeful employment—and hope more generally—is an important part of the explanation of trends in both addiction and mortality. Sergio Pinto and I find that the same cohorts who are most likely to suffer from premature mortality—less than college-educated whites in rural or suburban parts of the country—have much higher levels of reported ill-being, with little hope for the future and high levels of worry.​
 
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