Jewish History

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.

Holocaust survivor Shalom Stamberg holds a book with a photo of himself in Auschwitz, alongside a copy of his concentration camp record. AP Photo/Ariel Schalit One in four American millennials believe the Holocaust was exaggerated or entirely made up, according to a recent national survey that sought to find out what young adults know about

Franklin D. Roosevelt is widely remembered as a strong leader who boldly led America out of the Great Depression and to the brink of victory in World War II. Yet when it comes to the Holocaust, some defenders of FDR’s record want us to believe he was not responsible for keeping Jewish refugees out of America—as if that was all the handiwork of the State Department, which supposedly ran U.S. immigration policy and foreign policy independently of the president’s wishes. Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. [Rafael Medoff and Stephen H. Norwood]

The rise of Alejandro Mayorkas may be just the feel-good story Miami needs post-election.After his Jewish parents fled Fidel Castro’s Communist takeover of Cuba in 1960, Mayorkas lived in Miami as a child. They eventually left the capital of Cuban exiles for a life in Los Angeles, but the 61-year-old hasn’t forgotten his immigrant beginnings.It