How Did The Us Affect The Holocaust

United States and the Holocaust The United States was greatly affected by the Holocaust. It was very difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas because of the U.S. State Department policies. The number of entry visas was eventually limited due to an Immigration Law passed by the Congress in 1924. Later in 1940, the U.S. further limited immigration by delaying visa approvals on national security grounds. For years, more than half of the immigrants sent to America were Jewish. After the U.S. entered the war though, the immigration numbers decreased. This was also at the time when the Nazi party began to murder the Jews in Europe. After all, more than 200,000 Jews found refuge in America. U.S. reaction to Hitler’s “Final Solution”
In 1942, the State Department received a letter sent by the World Jewish Congress. The report said that the Germans were going to apply a policy to destroy all of the Jews of Europe. Officials of the department did not forward the message to its intended recipient, American Jewish …show more content…
and Britain representatives met on April 19, 1943, to discuss refugee problems. Neither government showed any signs of implementing rescue programs at first. About a year later though, a War Refugee Board was established under the authority of the President. Its purpose was to follow the US policy by rescuing victims of enemy oppression in danger of death and to provide relief and assistance.
In 1944, the WRB established the Fort Ontario Refugee Center in New York to facilitate the rescue of refugees. The center rescued 983 refugees in total, 918 of whom were Jewish. American authorities were not intending on rescuing the refugees before the establishment of the War Refugee Board in 1944. Four-Fifths of the Jews that would be killed in the Holocaust were already dead by the time this program was established.
American Soldier and Holocaust survivor