by Jay Winik
“Dear Boss”: From Adolph Held, Jewish Labor Committee Archives, December 8, 1942; the quotations may also be found in Wyman, Abandonment, 71–72, which presents this episode in detail.
“Do all in”: The meeting with Roosevelt is drawn heavily from Breaking the Silence, 162; and Rosen, Saving the Jews, 244. See also Deborah Lipstadt, Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945 (Free Press, 1986), 1984–85; Richard Breitman, Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew (Hill and Wang, 1998), chap. 9 (this is a fascinating book); and Arthur Morse, While 6 Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy (Random House, 1968), 28.
“an insane man”: Wyman, Abandonment, 73.
“Gentlemen” and “We shall do”: Ibid.
“Don’t bother going”: James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940–1945 (Harcourt, 1970), 286–87. Here we see vintage Roosevelt circumventing the bureaucracy when it suited his purposes.
Once more, Wise convened: Palcor Bulletin, December 17, 1942, for these paragraphs; see also Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies (Holt, 1981), 103–4, for a moving account of this episode.
“grave doubts”: Wyman, Abandonment, 74.
“beyond doubt” and views of the Christian Century: See Wyman, Abandonment, 65–66.
“The ugly truth”: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 397.
“The most tragic”: New York Times, December 18, 1942, 46; quotations are also found in Wyman, Abandonment, 76.
“How horrible, fantastic”: William Manchester, Winston Spencer Churchill: The Last Lion (Delta, 1988), 345.
On the domestic front: This paragraph is drawn heavily from the New York Times, April 23, 1942, 1, 16; and August 16, 1942, section 7, 5. For related information, see New Republic, September 21, 1942, 336; Fortune, November 1942, 227; Time, May 25, 1942, 16. For an overview see Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 356–59.
“We are standing”: Forrest Pogue, George C. Marshall (Viking, 1963), 123, 402; and Mark Perry Partners in Command (Penguin, 2007), 127.
not only was their training inadequate: Perry, Partners in Command, 166, 175. For equipment see Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 387.
Roosevelt had instructed: Roosevelt’s instruction to Robert Murphy is in Charles Murphy, “The Unknown Battle,” Life, October 16, 1944, 102, 106.
“My friends”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 292.
Newsweek wrote: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 388.
“every bullet we”: Perry, Partners in Command, 139.
“We are attacked” and Darlan deal: Major General Richard W. Stephens, “Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West,” in US Army in World War II, Mediterranean Theater of Operations (Government Printing Office, 1956), 260–65. See also the excellent writeup in Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 296, which includes the quotes in these paragraphs. I have relied heavily on Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn (Holt, 2007), 121–22; and Jean Edward Smith, FDR (Random House, 2008) 562–64.
“opposed to Frenchmen”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 297. The Vichy government in North Africa feared (correctly) that it would be under threat from the Germans. Complicating matters, the Allies had to deal with two sets of French leaders.
“walk with the devil”: Ibid. For Marshall’s and Eisenhower’s defense of the “Darlan deal,” see Conference with Marshall, November 15, 1942, Clapper Papers, Library of Congress. For more on the military and politics, see Harry Butcher, My Three Years with Eisenhower (Simon & Schuster, 1946), 165.
“I’m happy today”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 300.
“in a department store”: Ibid.
“Now, this is not”: Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins (Harper, 1948), 656; see also Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 389. What comes across here is that Roosevelt could clearly envision the successful end of the war. Similarly, in the Civil War, when Ulysses Grant squared off against Robert E. Lee, Grant’s triumph, despite appalling losses, especially in the Wilderness Campaign, became a matter of military mathematics and time.
“This . . . is London”: See Kai Bird, The Chairman, John J. McCloy: The Making of the Establishment (Simon & Schuster, 1992), 202; this is an outstanding work.
New Year’s Eve: See Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 665; Samuel Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt (Harper, 1952), 365; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 302.
CHAPTER 11
“We can become”: Roger Moorhouse, Berlin at War (Basic Books, 2010), 336–40. The text of Goebbels’s speech may be found online in German and in English. See also William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (Simon & Schuster, 1960).
issued a gas mask: For Washington, D.C., during wartime, I have relied extensively on a marvelous little book, brimming with keen observations, by the veteran journalist David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War: The Extraordinary Story of the Transformation of the City and a Nation (Random House, 1999), 23, 73, 74–75, 83, 95–96. The reader can also consult Paul K. Williams, Washington DC: The World War II Years (Arcadia, 2014). Taken together, these two books are reminiscent of Margaret Leech’s Pulitzer prize–winning study, Reveille, about the capital during the Civil War.
“Last year”: James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940–1945 (Harcourt, 1970), 305–6; for text of speech, Samuel Rosenman, ed. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volumes 1941–1945 (Harper, 1950), 21–34; for Roosevelt preparing the message for Congress, see Samuel Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt (Harper, 1952), 366. The text may also be found online.
in liberated Casablanca: Michael Reilly, Reilly of the White House (Simon & Schuster, 1947), 150, 180.
Elliott Roosevelt, who had been summoned: Elliott Roosevelt, As He Saw It (Duell, Sloane and Pierce, 1946), 324–25.
Much of the talk was speculation: For discussions and strategy at Casablanca see H. W. Brands, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Doubleday, 2008), 695–708, 521–22; Jean Edward Smith, FDR (Random House, 2008), 565–66. It’s important to remember that as a backdrop to these discussions, Rommel’s panzers drubbed the U.S. II Corps at Kasserine Pass in mid-February 1943; see Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (Doubleday, 1948), 163.
Churchill “used humor”: These two paragraphs rely heavily upon Jon Meacham, Franklin and Winston (Random House, 2004), 204, 207, and the marvelous photograph of Churchill having his way, 205; see also Elliott Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 329.
“Once in a jeep”: For these paragraphs, including unconditional surrender, Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 208, 209; Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time (Simon & Schuster, 1994), 409–10; Smith, FDR, 567–68. Smith makes the point that unconditional surrender had been thoroughly discussed and that Roosevelt was not shooting from the hip. The debate has continued to this day.
“I congratulate you”: From MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 330. Burns’s account of Hitler during this period is very strong, and I rely heavily on his interpretations.
“would inevitably have led”: Ibid.
Hitler’s foul moods: For Hitler’s deterioration, pill taking, and symptoms, see Kershaw, 752–54, on which I extensively draw in these paragraphs. See also MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 331 and for the list of those Hitler hated, 309–10 (I have made some additions to this).
“I had honored my father”: Kershaw, Hitler, 5–20; it is hard to overstate the impact of the early death of his mother on Hitler. My biography of Hitler is extensively drawn from Kershaw. Other works I’ve consulted are Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (Houghton Mifflin, 1998); Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich (Simon & Schuster, 1997); Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (Harper Perennial, 1991); Ron Rosenbaum, Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil (HarperCollins, 1998); William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (Rosetta, 2011); Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners (Vintage, 2011); Adolf Hitler: A Concise Biography (Berkeley, 2000). Burns’s Soldi
er of Freedom also has fascinating insights into the Führer. For more on the crucial relationship of Hitler and his generals, see Corelli Barnett, Hitler’s Generals (Grove Weidenfeld, 1989).
Hitler dropped out of school: For these paragraphs, see Kershaw, Hitler, 9–11. Kershaw makes a powerful case that Hitler was early on a dreamer and a dilettante beset by delusions and phobias.
The dream soon ended: Ibid., 15, 22–24, 33, for this material.
“Ohm Paul Kruger”: Ibid., 31.
his cherished Wagner: Ibid., 21.
Hitler himself was a deviant: Ibid., 27–37, which includes his burgeoning worldview and “the greatest German mayor.” It is important to note that Hitler was imbibing the anti-Semitism of the time.
For the first time he had a sense of belonging: For instance, ibid., 50–59. World War I is crucial for understanding Hitler.
“stumbled across his greatest talent”: Ibid., 63–75.
“Goodness he’s got”: Ibid., 75.
“beer hall”: Ibid., 128–48. See also Mein Kampf. It is remarkable in hindsight to think about what an extraordinary bestseller Mein Kampf was; it is equally remarkable to think of how Hitler was treated as a celebrity in jail. It calls to mind Harriet Beecher Stowe and her extraordinary book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which propelled her to international celebrity and bolstered the antislavery movement, prompting Abraham Lincoln to say to her, “So you are the little lady who started this great war.” The profound difference, of course, is that Hitler was laying the groundwork for the Holocaust and the evisceration of morality, while Stowe was appealing to national and international morality with her tract.
In 1932, the Nazis received . . . 18.3 percent: Kershaw, Hitler, 204–5.
Yet he did not come to power: The delusions of the moderates regarding Hitler were endless. On this, and for quotes, ibid., 291; and William Manchester, Winston Spencer Churchill: The Last Lion (Delta, 1988), 63.
“Hitler is Reich Chancellor”: For this and Walter Lippmann’s observations, Kershaw, Hitler, 256; Manchester, The Last Lion, 81. Lippmann was considered one of America’s greatest journalists, yet he was always ambivalent about his own Jewishness, and this ambivalence at times clouded his judgment: see Ronald Steel, Walter Lippmann and the American Century (Little, Brown, 1980).
Upon coming to power: For these paragraphs about the consolidation of Hitler’s power I draw heavily on Kershaw, Hitler, 256; Manchester, The Last Lion, 79–81; and Erik Larsen, In the Garden of Beasts (Crown, 2012), 19.
Hitler was a born thespian: See Manchester, The Last Lion, 117; Kershaw, Hitler, 174.
In late February 1943: On the critical Senate vote, see David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews (New Press, 1984), 95.
“The Jews are being slaughtered”: Ibid. 105; and New York Times, December 13, 1942.
“In this country”: Nation, March 13, 1943, 366–67; and Wyman, Abandonment, 89–90. The Nation remained among the most eloquent voices of the time.
“We Will Never Die”: At the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and at its website, the reader may see film footage from the pageant. The American Experience website and PBS, which produced America and the Holocaust, have more information. See also Wyman, Abandonment, 91, on which my account draws heavily.
“one of the most impressive”: See Wyman, Abandonment, 91.
“Romania Proposes”: New York Times, February 13, 1943.
“For Sale to Humanity”: New York Times, February 16, 1943. See also Wyman, Abandonment, 86–88, on which I draw heavily, for Wise’s efforts to galvanize the administration and Congress.
the administration was now feeling the political pressure: See Wyman, Abandonment, 89.
President Roosevelt met in Washington: See minutes of the Meeting of the Joint Committee, March 29, 1943, in Wyman, Abandonment, 382; see also 97.
“There is always the danger”: For this material, Wyman, Abandonment, 99; see also, for Sir Thomas Moore, Manchester, The Last Lion, 101.
diplomats convening in Bermuda: On the splendor of the conference, see London Observer, April 20, 1943; and New York Times, April 20, 1943. On the setup for the Bermuda conference, see especially Wyman, Abandonment, 109–10.
Once the conference began: On the sidestepping of the main issues, see dispatches in Manchester Guardian, April 20–24, 1943. See also Arthur Morse, Apathy (Ace Publishing, 1968), 54, 60.
“with wooden legs”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 396.
“send a large number of picked”: See Wyman, Abandonment, 113–15, 396. I draw heavily on Wyman for the unfolding of the conference.
was more complicated: On the back-and-forth that went nowhere, ibid., 221.
Dodds, the chair: Foreign Relations of the U.S. Volume 1, 1943, 134.
“subject to military” and paragraph: Readers may consult Wyman, Abandonment, 117, for this interpretation.
no serious dissenting voices: See Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 227.
“shocked by the”: For this and other quotes, Wyman, Abandonment, 119; for the candid discussion among the American delegates on Easter, when they finally started seeing this as what Wyman calls a people problem, see his Appendix A, 356. The German comes from Manchester, The Last Lion, 121. See also Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 227, for discussion of the administration’s view on the Bermuda conference. Meacham notes that this is one of the few times when Roosevelt and Churchill actively discussed the Holocaust in May, though they reached no decision. Churchill wrote to Roosevelt on June 30, 1943, “Our immediate facilities for helping the victims of Hitler’s anti-Jewish drive are so limited at present that the opening of the small camp proposed for the purpose of removing some of them to safety seems all the more incumbent on us.”
“destroyed every hope”: See Wyman, Abandonment, 120–22, 143.
Polish city of Warsaw: This discussion follows Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust (Holt, 1985), 461. Also see Dan Kurzman, The Bravest Battle: The 28 Days of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Da Capo, 1993); Israel Gutman, Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Mariner, 1998); Kazik, Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter (Yale University Press, 2002); Emmanuel Ringleblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto (iBooks, 2006).
“We fight like animals”: This and preceding two paragraphs from Gilbert, Holocaust, 557–64.
a few Jews inside: Ibid., 564–67. The two words “save us,” would heroically echo through the ranks of Jews everywhere who heard them.
the renowned poet: I am indebted to MacGregor Burns for Roosevelt’s exchange with Archibald MacLeish recording the history of the war. This paragraph follows MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 389–92.
For two weeks: On the Trident conference and the discussion about Italy, see for example Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 439. Smith, FDR, 572–76; Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 223–26.
“Gambia fever” See MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 390; Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 214; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 419.
“I don’t care”: Smith, FDR, 576, for this and other quotes.
CHAPTER 12
“I get so many conflicting”: Harold D. Smith diary, FDRL, Roosevelt memorandum on September 14, 1942; also may be found in MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940–1945 (Harcourt, 1970), 343. For Roosevelt as chief executive, see Barry Dean Karl, Executive Reorganization and Reform in the New Deal (Harvard University Press, 1963); see also a fine study by Richard E. Neustadt, Presidential Power (Wiley, 1960), especially 214–15, which sheds light on Roosevelt’s leadership. Henry Stimson also had keen observations on Roosevelt as an administrator: see his diary entries, January 23, 1943, February 3, 1943, and March 28, 1943, Stimson Papers, box 400, Library of Congress.
“vague” and “noncommittal”: in Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time (Simon & Schuster, 1994), 453. For more on the emergency conference, see David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews (New Press, 1984) 146. I draw on both Goodwin and Wyman.
“in any way”: Quotes from Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 4
54.
“I do not think”: Wyman, Abandonment 148.
“there was hardly a square yard”: These paragraphs are drawn extensively from Jan Karski, Collier’s, October 14, 1944, 18–19, 60–61. Karski went to great lengths to document everything he saw and experienced. Karski’s article is haunting. See also Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 454.
“You have a friend”: See American Experience PBS documentary, America and the Holocaust; Henry Morgenthau Diary FDRL; Robert N. Rosen, Saving the Jews (Thunder’s Mouth, 2006), 297, 347. For more, see E. Thomas Wood and Stanislas Jankowski, Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust (Wiley, 1996). It is worth recalling that Karski’s original mission was to lobby for a free Poland and to warn Roosevelt about the Soviet Union, but Karski had an awakening because of what he saw in the death camp. In addition to Cordell Hull, it was John Pehle who asserted that Roosevelt was “stunned” by Karski’s account.
“What I think I will do”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 397. Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh, A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel (Harper Perennial, 2009), 18–22. Roosevelt said the problem of Jews in Palestine could be settled by putting a barbed-wire fence around it. Sam Rosenman told Roosevelt in turn, yes, if it “keeps Jews in and Arabs out,” 20. On colonization of the Jews: For Lincoln, I discussed this in April 1865. It also turns out that the principal author of the Constitution, James Madison, had comparable ideas about slaves and blacks colonizing Liberia. On the shifting sands of the Middle East: My discussion here closely follows MacGregor Burns’s observation that the success in Italy opened up countless possibilities in the Middle East; for more, see Morgenthau Diary, December 3, 1942, FDRL.
“Will any of these Jews survive”: From Wyman, Abandonment, 150.
“Stephen, why don’t you”: Rosen, Saving the Jews, 289, 391. On Romanian Jews: Wyman, Abandonment, 82–84.
“Hitler . . . started boasting”: From Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Message to Congress, September 17, 1943, 106, online (see American Presidency Project). Rosen, Saving the Jews, 290, has the Goebbels quote.