Analysis: The American Jewish Leaders Meeting with President Roosevelt

Date: December 8, 1942

Author: Adolph Held

Genre: account

Summary Overview

This document is an account of a meeting of several representatives of major American Jewish organizations with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in December 1942. Adolph Held, head of the Jewish Labor Committee, recorded this remembrance of the meeting. The Jewish leaders presented the president with a document detailing some of the facts about the Nazi's extermination of European Jews. According to Held, Roosevelt told the Jewish leaders that the US government was aware of the Nazi atrocities and agreed to issue a statement warning that Nazi leaders would be held accountable for war crimes. While many American Jews, both during and after the war, doubted that the US government did all it could to aid European Jews during the conflict, the tone of this meeting seemed to be one of mutual respect and cordiality.

Defining Moment

From the time Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, American Jews joined other Jewish people worldwide in raising alarm about the racial policies of the Nazis. Early on, major emphasis was placed on helping Jews to emigrate from Germany or the areas that Germany occupied after Hitler began his expansionary moves. In April 1938, US president Franklin D. Roosevelt established the President's Advisory Committee on Political Refugees, which was intended to seek ways to help any displaced people in Nazi-dominated Europe to emigrate. That July, an international conference on the European refugee situation was held in Évian, France. These efforts accomplished little, however. While hundreds of thousands of Jews were able to leave Nazi-controlled areas in the late 1930s, large-scale emigration was hampered by restrictive immigration policies and quotas in the United States and many Western Europeans nations. In the United States, Congress was wary about easing immigration restrictions for two reasons: the nation was still in the grips of the Great Depression and American voters might resent immigrants whom they would perceive as competing for their jobs. After the fall of France in June 1940, the tactical difficulty of doing anything to save European Jews from the Nazis by using military force was greatly heightened. After the United States entered the war in December 1941, many American military and political leaders began to argue that the only effective way to save European Jews from the death camps was a rapid overall Allied victory in the European theater.

Rabbi Stephen Wise, one of the Jewish leaders whose meeting with Roosevelt is described in this document, was a fervent supporter of Roosevelt. While Wise was frustrated that the US government was not doing enough to aid European Jews, he was reluctant to openly criticize Roosevelt because he agreed with him on many other issues. Roosevelt himself sometimes expressed frustration at the bureaucratic inertia and congressional opposition that seemed to limit his ability to respond to the crisis. While Roosevelt and this delegation of Jewish leaders seemed to hold mutual respect, in the end, the president promised little more than to issue a statement condemning the Nazi atrocities and warning German military and political leaders that they would be held accountable for crimes against humanity.

Author Biography

Adolph Held was born in Borislav, Poland, in 1885, and came to the United States when he was about seven years old. He had a long career in journalism, banking, and labor activism. For the Yiddish newspaper Jewish Daily Forward, he was the city editor (1907–12), business manager (1912–17), and general manager (1962–67). In 1925, he became president of the Amalgamated Bank, a financial institution that primarily served businesses in the garment trade. After World War I, he served for a time as the European director of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which helped dislocated Jewish refugees come to the United States. In 1938, he became the national chair of the Jewish Labor Committee, a post he held for nearly thirty years. After World War II, Held also served as director of health and welfare benefit programs for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. He died in New York City in 1969.

Document Analysis

This document records a meeting of representatives from several American Jewish organizations with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to discuss Nazi atrocities against Jews in Europe. The author of this document, Adolph Held, attended this meeting as a representative of the Jewish Labor Committee. Also in attendance was Rabbi Stephen Wise, who was well-acquainted with President Roosevelt. Wise was head of the World Jewish Congress and was perhaps the best-known Jewish religious leader in the United States. Also present was Rabbi Israel Rosenberg, a leader of Agudah Ha-Rabbonim, an organization representing Orthodox Jews. Henry Monsky attended, representing B'nai B'rith, an immigrant aid organization combating anti-Semitism in the United States. Although unmentioned by Held, American Jewish Committee president Maurice Wertheim was also present.

After Wise introduces the other members of the delegation, Roosevelt begins with an attempt at humor—suggesting that after the war, Nazi leaders might have to beg bread from the former governor of New York, Herbert Lehman, who was Jewish. Roosevelt had recently appointed Lehman to chair an agency directing European recovery after the war.

After a request from Wise, Roosevelt allowed Rabbi Rosenberg to pronounce a blessing upon the president. Held notes that both the president and the members of the delegation seemed to be moved by this ritual.

The document states that Wise then read a brief letter and mentioned a longer document they were presenting that detailed evidence of Nazi atrocities in Poland. The letter requested that Roosevelt warn German leaders that they would be held accountable for war crimes.

In response, Held notes, Roosevelt admitted that the US government was aware of the facts presented, having “received confirmation from many sources.” He then described some of the problems involved in trying to address the situation—these things could not be treated “in normal ways,” partly because Hitler was “an insane man” surrounded by people who made up “an example of a national psychopathic case.” Roosevelt also wanted to avoid any appearance that the United States was blaming all the German people for the actions of the Nazis leaders and expressed confidence that some Germans would stand up to the Nazi system. While Roosevelt believed little direct action was possible, he did agree to issue a statement about the Nazi war crimes.

According to Held, Roosevelt then mentioned the situation in North Africa, where Allied troops had recently begun operations against German and Italian forces. He stressed that both the Jewish and Islamic peoples of North Africa would be treated well. Held says that the meeting ended cordially with Roosevelt telling the delegation to write a statement and he would issue it, finally promising, “We shall do all in our power to be of service to your people in this tragic moment.”

Glossary

adjutant: a staff officer who assists the commanding officer

“Junker”: a young German noble; a member of a class of aristocratic landholders, devoted to militarism, from whom the German military recruited many officers

sadist: a person who enjoys being cruel

scull-cap: a small, brimless close-fitting cap, often made of silk or velvet, worn on the head; used in religious functions

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Feingold, Henry L. Bearing Witness: How American and Its Jews Responded to the Holocaust. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1995. Print.

Hamerow, Theodore S. Why We Watched: Europe, America, and the Holocaust. New York: Norton, 2008. Print.

Rosen, Robert N. Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust. New York: Thunder's Mountain, 2006. Print.

Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945. New York: Pantheon, 1984. Print.