Beyond Belief

by Deborah E. Lipstadt

  39. San Francisco Chronicle, April 19, 1943, p. 3, April 20, 1943, p. 6; New York Times, April 22, 1943, p. 10; Christian Science Monitor, April 19, 1943, p. 1, April 30, 1943, p. 7; New York Herald Tribune, April 23, 1943, p. 8.

  40. St. Louis Post Dispatch, April 22, 1943.

  41. New York Times, April 19, 1943, p. 1; New York Herald Tribune, April 19, 1943, p. 1; Christian Science Monitor, April 19, 1943, p. 1; San Francisco Chronicle, April 20, 1943, p. 6; New York Journal American, April 20, 1943, p. 4; Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1943, p. 8; San Francisco Examiner, April 20, 1943, p. 10; Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1943, p. 11.

  42. New York Herald Tribune, April 20, 1943, p. 1; New York Journal American, April 20, 1943, p. 4; New York Times, April 20, 1943, p. 11.

  43. PM, April 25, 1943, p. 8; St. Louis Post Dispatch, April 22, 1943, p. 2b; Christian Science Monitor, April 19, 1943, p. 1, April 22, 1943, p. 8; Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1943, p. 5; San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 1943, p. 3; New York Times, April 20, 1943, p. 1; New York Herald Tribune, April 18, 1943, p. 40, April 19, 1943, p. 1, April 20, 1943, p. 1, April 22, 1943, p. 4, April 23, 1943, p. 8; New York Journal American, April 20, 1943, p. 4; New York World Telegram, April 22, 1943, p. 11.

  44. Christian Science Monitor, April 22, 1943, p. 8; St. Louis Post Dispatch, April 22, 1943, p. 36.

  45. FRUS, 1943, vol. I, p. 172. Long Mss, April 7, 1943, Long to Law, as cited in Feingold, p. 196. For details on Long’s attempts to prevent the conference from really pursuing changes in Allied rescue policy, see Feingold, pp. 197-207. FRUS, 1943, vol. I, pp. 158-159, 174; Christian Science Monitor, April 26, 1943, p. 1, April 27, 1943, p. 1; New York World Telegram, April 26, 1943, p. 23; Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1943, sec. A, p. 4; Beck to Long, FRUS, 1943, vol. I, p. 164; Wyman, Abandonment, p. 117.

  46. U.S. House of Representatives, Problems of World War II and Its Aftermath, part 2, The Palestine Question (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1976); New York Times, December 3, 1943, p. 3.

  47. New York Herald Tribune, April 30, 1943, p. 8; New York Times, April 30, 1943, p. 9; New York World Telegram, April 29, 1943, p. 27.

  48. Saul S. Friedman, No Haven for the Oppressed: United States Policy Toward Jewish Refugees, 1938-1945 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), pp. 170-180; New York Post, April 23, 1943; Department of State Bulletin, vol. VIII, no. 351 (April 17, 1943), as cited in Feingold, p. 198.

  49. Nation, June 5, 1943, pp. 796-797.

  50. Free World, July 1943; New York Times, April 29, 1943.

  51. New York Journal American, April 23, 1943, p. 2.

  52. Christian Science Monitor, April 30, 1943, p. 8; New York Herald Tribune, April 29, 1943, p. 8. Saul Friedman points out that the details of what was discussed were not released until 1963, when State Department records on the conference were declassified. Friedman, p. 183.

  53. New Republic, August 30, 1943; New York Post, New York Herald Tribune, Boston Globe—all as quoted in JTA Daily News Bulletin, May 4, May 10, 1943.

  54. New York Times, May 4, 1943, p. 17; American Hebrew, May 7, 1943, as cited in Feingold, p. 338, n. 3.

  55. PM, April 16, 1943, p. 6, April 19, 1943, pp. 14-15, April 25, 1943, p. 8, April 26, 1943; Christian Science Monitor, April 22, 1943, p. 8.

  56. PM, May 2, 1943, p. 2.

  57. PM, May 9, 1943, p. 2.

  58. New York Times, April 30, 1943, p. 9; San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 1943, p. 3.

  59. Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1943, p. 1.

  60. Christian Science Monitor, April 17, 1943.

  61. The War Diary of Breckinridge Long, cd. Fred L. Israel (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), June 23, 1943, p. 316.

  62. New York Herald Tribune, April 20, 1943; New York Journal American, April 20, 1943.

  63. New York Times, April 22, 1943, p. 1; Christian Science Monitor, April 22, 1943, p. 1.

  64. New York Times, April 23, 1943, p. 9, May 7, 1943, p. 7, May 15, 1943, p. 6, June 4, 1943, p. 7.

  65. New York Times, April 21, 1944, p. 18.

  Chapter 10

  1. Memo, Harrison to Hull, March 4, 1943, DS 862.4016/2259; May 17, 1943, DS 862.4016/2269. Riegner and Richard Lichtheim cabled Wise via the State Department that contrary to press reports, the number of Jewish victims was closer to 4 million than the 3 that had been reported. July 29, 1943, DS 862.4016/2280.

  2. New York Herald Tribune, August 30, 1943, p. 4; St. Louis Post Dispatch, August 30, 1943, sec. III, p. 1.

  3. New York Times, December 1, 1943, p. 6, December 5, 1943, p. 3; Newsweek, October 18, 1943, pp. 41-42; New York World Telegram, November 25, 1943, p. 8, December 11, 1943, p. 1.

  4. The Baltimore Sun adopted a vastly different approach to the same story and instead stressed that the Nazis had been “decent” to American Jews and that they had been given “sufficient” food. New York Times, March 18, 1944, p. 3; Baltimore Sun, March 19, 1944.

  5. New York Times, February 11, 1944, p. 5, February 12, 1944, p. 6.

  6. New York Times, February 17, 1944, p. 9.

  7. New York Times, February 18, 1944, p. 7.

  8. New York Times, March 2, 1944, p. 4.

  9. New York Times, March 14, 1944, p. 4.

  10. New York Times, March 5, 1944, p. 6.

  11. New York Times, February 6, 1944, sec. IV, p. 8.

  12. Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly (Boston: Beacon Press, 1983), p. 130.

  13. Washington Post, March 15, 1944; Christian Science Monitor, March 21, 1944, p. 6.

  14. Washington Post, July 15, 1944, p. 2.

  15. New York Times, May 10, 1944, p. 5; Washington Post, April 11, 1944, p. 8.

  16. New York Times, May 4, 1944, p. 11, May 10, 1944, p. 5, May 17, 1944, p. 5.

  17. New York Times, May 17, 1944, p. 5, May 18, 1944, pp. 1, 5, June 2, 1944, p. 6. See also New York Times, May 4, 1944, p. 11, June 9, 1944, p. 5.

  18. Christian Science Monitor, May 20, 1944, p. 11; New York Times, July 2, 1944, p. 12.

  19. New York Times, July 13, 1944, p. 3.

  20. Ibid.

  21. New York Herald Tribune, August 30, 1943, p. 1, September 3, 1943, p. 5; St Louis Post Dispatch, August 30, 1943, sec. III, p. 1, September 3, 1943, p. 7; New York Journal American, August 30, 1943, p. 1; New York World Telegram, August 30, 1943, p. 17. The proposals by the Bergson-backed Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People had called for reprisal raids and had not mentioned a Jewish national home in Palestine. Los Angeles Examiner, August 30, 1943, p. 6, September 2, 1943, p. 7, September 4, 1943, p. 12; New Republic, August 2, 1943, p. 124. For discussion of role of Bergson and those around him see Monty Noam Penkower, “In Dramatic Dissent: The Bergson Boys,” American Jewish History, March 1981, pp. 281-309. Debate regarding the activities of American Jews in general and the tactics of the Peter Bergson-Ben Hecht group in particular conjures up many of the same passions which existed at the time. Elihu Matz, “Personal Actions vs. Personal Relations,” Midstream, April 1981, pp. 41-48; Lucy S. Dawidowicz, “American Jewry and the Holocaust,” New York Times Magazine, April 18, 1982, p. 47ff. For a critique of Dawidowicz’s arguments, including her comments on the Bergson group’s activities, see David Wyman, “Letters to the Editor,” New York Times Magazine, May 23, 1982, p. 94.

  22. New York Herald Tribune, September 4, 1943, p. 12; New York Journal American, September 4, 1943, p. 4; New Republic, August 30, 1943, pp. 299-316; Christian Century, September 8, 1943, pp. 1004-1005.

  23. New York Times, September 7, 1943, p. 16, October 21, 1943, p. 18, November 1, 1943, p. 5, November 24, 1943, p. 13; New Republic, August 30, 1943, p. 298; Nation, December 18, 1943, p. 739; David Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews, 1941-1945 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984), p. 375, n. 17.

  24. New Republic, August 30, 1943, p. 309.

  25. Los Angeles Examiner, September 4, 1943, p. 12; December 11, 1943, p. 1; New Republic, August 2, 1943, p. 124.

  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 Refug
ee 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.