Topic 5: US neutrality and WWII

rise of fascism in europe & the us’ response

• there was already a long history of anti-semitism in europe

• italy: mussolini blamed italy’s problems on foreigners

  • mussolini organized the blackshirts as a fascist militia

• germany: hitler blamed jews for the state of the world’s finances and claimed they were in charge of it

  • hitler organized the brownshirts gang and later an elite uniformed guard called the SS.

• 1931: Japan invades Manchuria, League of Nations does nothing but condemn them. Japan withdraws.

• 1933: Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany’s Parliament which is the Reichstag. He soon takes charge after the Reichstag burns.

  • Popular b/c nationalism, had powerful army, funded by industrialists, could attract country’s people

  • said he would re-arm Germany to never be defeated like at Versailles again

• 1935: Germany committed to militarization - universal military service

  • Mussolini invades Ethiopia

  • Neutrality Act banning sale of weapons is passed in US attempt to remain neutral. But US continued to help italy indirectly by selling oil and gas to them.

• 1936: Spanish Civil War. Some Americans go fight but officially remain neutral

• 1937: Japan attacks China again. Roosevelt expresses sympathy towards england but still tries to avoid involvement in the war NEUTRALITY STANCE STARTS TO CHANGE - IDEOLOGY

• 1938: Germany takes Austria, requests and gets part of Czechoslovakia

• 1939: Germany takes the rest of Czechoslovakia, sets sights on Poland. Roosevelt wants to overturn Neutrality Act to arm France and GB but doesn’t have to votes to do so. Germany and Soviet Union sign nonaggression pact and plan to attack Poland.

  • September 3 1939: France and England (Allies) declare war

  • Blitzkrieg - dropping fire bombs from the sky - Allies can’t hold off hitler and he gets most of Western Europe

• Also 1939: FDR passes cash and carry bill allowing Allies to buy arms, freezes assets of conquered nations still in the US to prevent them from being further armed. MILITARY SUPPORT FOR ALLIES

• 1941: Lend-Lease act. Roosevelt can help any country whose defense is vital to US defense, lending weapons to Allies. Also, Atlantic Charter signed w/Britain: permits international trade and mutual truce. 

• Also 1941: 68% of Americans support war against Germany b/c they realize Germany isn’t invincible since British Air Force repelled German bombing campaign & continued to hold them off

• December 1941: Pearl Harbor bombed. US enters WWII

• WWII is 1939 - 1945

• Cash&carry and lend-lease are basically circumventing America’s isolationist position and POLITICAL NEUTRALITY during this time

us neutrality in WWII

• 1933 - 1936: US is focused on recovering from the Great Depression and is not worrying about the war, therefore neutral. It also has no obligation to participate in the war because it is not part of the League of Nations.

• 1936 - 1938: Still neutral. Passed Neutrality Act to outlaw selling weapons to countries at war and passed Kellogg-Briand Pact w/French foreign minister to outlaw war in 15 nations. US criticized for their inaction.

• 1939 - 1941: Politically neutral, but economically and militarily not neutral. FDR passes Cash and Carry (pay back w/money) in 1939 and Lend-Lease (pay back w/weapons) in 1941. 

  • Americans criticize these for giving president too much power + socially neutral because they’re isolationist

• December 1941: US not politically neutral anymore b/c they enter the war after Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.

us in the holocaust + responses and neutrality stance

• US is basically supporting fascism/Germany by remaining passive during the Holocaust and even discriminating against Jewish people until 1944 until the War Refugee Board was established

not neutral:

• Kristallnacht 1938: FDR did not respond other than condemning the Nazis publicly.

• Wagner-Rogers bill: would have admitted 20,000 refugee children outside the immigration quota. However, it faced opposition and died in Congress.

  • meanwhile enthusiastically passed bill to shelter British refugees

• Restricted access to medical facilities for Jewish people

• Jewish people were denied many jobs they were otherwise qualified for

• 1940: Breckinridge Long drafts Postpone Doctrine to cut Jewish immigration by putting obstacles in the immigration process, thus delaying the granting of visas. Some of these included unreasonable requirements like completing all tasks within four months and both an exit visa and a US visa.

• Paper walls: the regulations posing an obstacle to prospective immigrants.

• 1942: Government is fully aware of what’s going on in Germany, b/c around this time an Anti-Nazi German industrialist leaks plans to exterminate Jewish people in Germany to the head of a Jewish convention in Geneva and that person tells FDR. Red Cross members and refugees also reported to the government but were ignored.

• US learned about the deportation and murder of Jewish people in Germany but church and press were silent.

• State Department actively blocks information regarding the genocide, citing them as “personal matters.”

• Bermuda Conference: US and British organized to discuss what could be done to help Jewish refugees, but they did not really intend on doing anything. Their verdict was that the war had to be won before anything could be done for Jewish refugees.

• John Pehle: suggests US raise funds to support release of Romanian Jewish people. Treasury Department tries to get a license to make sure the funds go to rescuing the Romanian Jewish people and not into enemy hands, but someone gave a speech to the House of Representatives that was against the license, falsely stating that 500k Jewish people had immigrated to the US since the beginning of Hitler years. This delayed the legislation despite that there was bipartisan support otherwise.

  • Treasury Department presses Congress about this and finds out that they are actively suppressing information -> eg. telling Switzerland not to accept any reports about this matter. Turns out they actually feared the release of so many Jewish people

neutral:

• Continued to hire Jewish people in WPA in New Deal + some of president’s closest advisors were Jewish

• US citizens were allowed to speak out and anti-Semitism was not the official policy, unlike in Germany

• The general public was shown not to understand the gravity of the events of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism despite knowing the facts. This is shown by how many of them saw the Jewish pageant “We Will Never Die” that acted out Jewish struggles as just theatrical entertainment rather than a touching play like the Jewish population did.

pro-jewish:

• 1944 

• Basically: Treasury Department is gonna help the Jewish. State Department is gonna deny/censor/avoid info of the genocide.

• Karski: brings info about concentration camps in Warsaw, Poland to Treasury Department. They tell him to tell Poland that America will be their ally and enact justice

• Morgenthau: realizes the State Department is deliberately obstructing rescue of Jewish people.

• 400 rabbi give a speech to the president urging the creation of a rescue department.

• After uncovering the State Department scandal suppressing the license for Jewish people, the Treasury Department members immediately write to Morganthau and the President. This pressures FDR to create the War Refugee Board, but not out of goodwill, just because he wanted to avoid further discussion on the matter because it would otherwise be passed to the Senate and then be brought to public attention.

jewish actions:

• organized rallies and gave speeches urging support of the Jewish population and lowering the barrier for immigration or otherwise countering the Postpone Doctrine

• 1941: Stephen Wise, a rabbi, found out what the Jewish people were going through during the Holocaust in Germany and urged FDR to take action (he did not)

• Jewish people afraid to “rock the boat” by pressing government too much, so those who spoke out were sometimes shunned by their own society

• Anti-Defamation League: established to combat anti-Semitism + advocate for refugees

• Bergson made ads in the New York Times calling attention to how Romania might release 700k captive Jewish people

• 1943: organized a pageant called “We Will Never Die” to publicize Jewish struggles. Jewish people were touched but the general population saw it mainly as theatrical entertainment

War Refugee Board:

• planned to bomb the chambers in Auschwitz but was sabotaged by the government, who was keeping from them that Italy was already bombing the gas refineries around Auschwitz (and accidentally hit the extermination chambers with some bombs) but really were not focusing on it, showing their ignorance of the Jewish dilemma

• War Refugee Board did rescue 48k Romanian Jewish people after the board threatened to persecute its government. This opened up quota spots for Jewish immigration.

• They created it too late. If it had been created a year earlier and with less restrictions, it could have saved far more lives.