FDR - did nothing to protect the Jews..........?

Question

FDR was in office as President longer than any other President. At that time a President could serve more than two terms. He did absolutely nothing about defending the Jews from Hitler's rage. What would have happened if FDR had intervened before Hitler took the lives of millions of Jews?

Answer 1

Like Bush, he waited for an expected attack (on Pearl Harbor) that was predicted by intelligence reports that he read but chose to ignore.

Answer 2

We did not go to War to defend the Jewish people, we went to War because we were attached by the Japanese Empire who bombed Pearl Harbor.  

They were part of the Axis powers in league with Germany.

We joined the Allied Movement in retaliation for that attack

      Dec. 7th, 1944, A Day Which Will Live In Infamy.

That is where that line in history comes from courtesy of FDR.

Answer 3

We weren't at war with Germany when Hitler took power and started his campaign against the Jews. The feeling of America was isolationism until Pearl Harbor. Even after we declared war against Germany the main focus was defeating Germany's strong military. The real question is why didn't German citizens do something about it?

Answer 4

FDR was a anti-Semitic, period. Just starting to read history?

Answer 5

In 1938/39 the USA was not interested in doing anything for European Jews. The USA would not even participate in bringing in Jewish Children while England was bringing in and saving thousands of them.

Answer 6

If you knew anything about History, nobody knew there were death camps.  Those were rumors and were not believed even my other Jews.   We brought Jews here to the US, and every single country took Jews.  But we do have immigration laws and actually if you want to get technical it's because of the immigration laws and limitations of other countries that pushed Hitler over the edge to come up with a "final solution".    The inability to move out their Jews was a serious problem to the Germans.  Read the transcripts of the Wansee Conference.

Answer 7

Well, FDR could have ordered bombing of railways leading to Auschwitz, which could have saved many lived. Though it is still uncertain whether it was a mistake not to bomb these railways or whether he did it on purpose.

Answer 8

FDR served office in the United States of America, not Germany.  Are you suggesting he should have pre-emptively declared war based on the threat that the n**i regime might decide to kill people, before he had the support of other powers?  He would have been impeached.

Tobacco has claimed far more lives...should we also be asking why he didn't have the forsight to shut them down?

Out of curiosity, supposing you are right, where are you headed with the information?  Is this a case for stronger actions in Iraq and Sudan?  Historically speaking, countries and rulers are not motivated by what "does this help others."    In the above examples, what is best for the Iraqi and Sudanese people has virtually nothing to do with most countries' actions regarding Iraq and Sudan.  blah blah blah blah blah blah

Answer 9

Your assertion he did "absolutely nothing" is false.

Answer 10

Like most Democrats his goals were an all powerful government that serves it's own needs.  Protecting the Jews did not serve that end but WWII was a great chance for him to expand.

Answer 11

Well no offense - but FDR had his OWN country's problems to concentrate on - and what Hilter was doing at the time - was not widely known.  I don't understand why you believe it was FDR's sole responsibility to intervene.  What did the other world leaders do?

Answer 12

Like most FDR didn't realize what was going on with the Jews, he had other WW 2 worries like winning a war. He also lost a son during the war

Answer 13

The American public wanted to remain neutral till Pearl Harbor happened. Besides i don't think the U.S. knew what was going on inside Germany at the time regarding the camps.

Answer 14

Not too much he could have done. He was itching to get involved  in the war, but the American people were isolationists by nature, and this was another of Europe's wars. Secondly, the truths about Hitler's death camps could not be readily confirmed, and any knowledge of them was limited to begin with.

Once we got involved in the war, we had to actually fight our way deep enough into Europe to where the camps were before we coudl free them.

BUt before we entered the war, we could not have just bombed them, or done anythign about them, without delcaring war. Germany;s airforce was pretty dominant in the 30's and earl;y 40's, and we would have been shot out fo the sky. Why don't you think England didn't retaliate against the blitz?

Answer 15

Until Pearl Harbor, no one wanted to get involved in a war. Not just FDR.