Did the Usa Do Enough to Stop Prevent the Holocaust

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in there country. In 1939, 83% of Americans were opposed to the admission of refugees. Throughout the United States feelings of fear, mistrust, and even hatred of those who were different were very common, and publicly spoken about. The U.S. looked upon the Jews as unfavorably. In 1924, Congress had set up immigration quotas that limited the number of immigrants and discriminated against groups considered racially and ethnically undesirable. The United States was extremely racist, and viewed themselves as superior to those who were even slightly different. By having American citizens believe that jewish people were worthless to them, shows a different side of the United States that may have not wanted to be shown.

During the war, the United States continuously set up bills, and conferences to discuss and plan how they would be able to support the fleeing refugees. These actions they took were to only make the U.S. appear better, and stronger. Because once a bill was proposed to the U.S. Congress and U.S. Government, they would continue to denied the bills, and refuse to help anyone but themselves. President Roosevelt held the 1938 Evian Conference in France. The U.S. expressed sympathy towards the victims of the Holocaust, but only offered excuses for not letting refugees into the United States. The Wagner-Rogers bill was proposed in 1939, which proposed letting 20 thousand German refugee children into the U.S, but was later denied by Congress. In 1942, Emanuel Celler tried to persuade Congress into opening the doors to all French refugees, but Congress again had denied. In 1943, a bill was trying to get passed in order to allow only non-threatening refugees into the country, but yet again the U.S. Congress denied the bill. There were many steps made into helping escaping refugees, but the U.S. Congress did not see how any of this would benefit themselves in the end.

The overall feeling in the United States, was that its citizens disapproved of admitting more Jews into the U.S. At this time President Roosevelt was at the height of his popularity, he could have been able to persuade the public opinion into taking in more Jews or to completely change their opinion about the jewish people all together. He represented the U.S., and the U.S’s citizens looked up to him, he had the power to change some people’s views during this chaotic time. The United States administration was afraid of the American public opinion and were afraid of the resistance in Congress if the immigration policies were changed. The U.S. War Department repeatedly refused to bomb Nazi concentration camps or the railroads leading to them. The U.S. did not care what was happening in Europe, and didn’t want to deal with anybody else’s problems. The United States was determined not to alter its immigration quotas, based on the deep feelings of nativism, and anti-semitic that were engraved into the U.S. The issuings of more immigration visas for Germans and Austrians could have saved thousands of Jews. But plans to admit more refugees from Austria and Germany were dropped. The jewish people were not the U.S’s problem, and they made that very clear.

One of the justifications that the United States had always said to defend themselves, as to why they hadn’t got into the war sooner was based upon that they had no knowledge of what was truly happening in Europe. But the United States did have knowledge of what Hitler was doing to the jewish people. Everybody around the world knew of the mass murders, and destruction happening across the world. The United States had the knowledge and ability to save more victims, but yet didn’t see it as their problem. The U.S. knew what was happening but chose to ignore it because it wasn’t happening to American citizens. The United States had the capacity and opportunity to transport Jews to safe havens in North Africa, but never did. The U.S. Army Air Corps could have saved at least 150,000 Jews, had they launched operations against the camps earlier. There had always been times where the U.S. could have stepped out of their way and help victims of the Holocaust, but instead chose to continue fighting a war, when they could have saves many lives. The United States had known about the camps for a while, but choose to stay out of it. Even when the St. Louis tried to enter the U.S. with over 900 Jewish refugees aboard, they were told to leave. Despite most having valid visas, which means that they were already on the list to be welcomed into America. The U.S. government had sent the ship back to Europe, where most perished due to the Holocaust. But if the U.S. had allowed them to enter, they mostly would have survived. For the U.S. to say that they hadn’t know the full extent of what was happening is unjustifiable. Refugees would come and beg for help and safety but the U.S. only shut their doors in their faces, leaving people with no place to turn except back to where their people were being killed.

Towards the end of the war, when the United States finally decided to join. They were still more focused on winning than saving the lives of the Jewish people being murdered. Their military strategies were based on how are we going to win this war, instead of how are we going to save lives. The United States could have produced a lot better military strategies to save jewish people being killed in concentration camps. Once the U.S. had been completely involved in the war, they had known all about the mass murders conducted by the Nazis. The U.S. military could have produced a lot better strategies to stop or even slow down the killings at the Nazi concentration camps, but instead they chose to ignore them. Military leaders could have instructed U.S. pilots to bomb trucks and trains transporting Jews to their deaths daily. U.S. pilots could have also bombed the concentration camps, that were created to kill innocent people everyday. By destroying the camps, thousands of people would have died. But the prisoners there were already going to die, but just in a more barbaric and inhumane way. If camps had been bombed, Germany would have suffered major losses, and could possibly surrendered sooner. Even as Germany was in war, the death camps were still running, with innocent people still dying, hoping for something to save them from their living hell. The U.S. military chose to ignore the death camps only a few miles away from where they were already fighting. Winning the war at this point was far too important for the United States, than it was to save the lives of innocent men, women, and children who were being killed in the death camps everyday.

The Holocaust will be remembered as one of the most barbaric, and inhuman genocides in world history. In school they teach students how the United