The actions by the president [Franklin D. Roosevelt] and his administration included welcoming Nazi warships to U.S. ports; allowing deceptive labeling on German imports to elude anti-Nazi boycotters; censoring anti-Nazi remarks by cabinet members; and refraining from publicly condemning the Hitler regime’s persecution of German Jews (from 1933 until late 1938). Our essay noted that none of this is mentioned in the exhibit on “Americans and the Holocaust” at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington, D.C. None of the museum’s staff historians have disputed the accuracy of our essay. Instead, the museum issued this statement by its communications director: “The exhibition reveals how many segments of American society, not just the president, but also Congress, the State Department, the media, and the public knew about the persecution and murder of the Jews while it was happening but for the most part failed to respond.” In other words, don’t focus the blame on FDR, because everybody was doing it.
