Holocaust and America's Response to Other Genocides

Nazi Genocide: What was America’s role in the Holocaust?

Following its defeat in World War I and the punitive peace treaty the followed, Germany fell into a deep and extended economic depression. Nationalist leaders found a willing audience when they looked for scapegoats who could be blamed for the country’s troubles. Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party claimed that the Jewish people were traitors during the war and a blight on the nation. Hitler claimed that the Aryan race (northern Europeans) were genetically superior to all others and that the Jews were inferior. When he rose to power in the early 1930s, he began to impose punitive policies to punish and shame the Jews.

Extermination of the Jewish People

With the start of the war, Jews were rounded up and forced into work camps to make war supplies for their Nazi captors. They imposed similar policies on nations that they conquered, including France and eastern Europe. As the war progressed, the Nazis moved to even harsher measures until they reached the "ultimate solution" to the Jewish question: extermination of all Jews under their control. Concentration camps began the grisly process of killing Jews in massive numbers. Allied troops that began liberating these camps in 1945 were shocked at Nazi inhumanity, and German leaders responsible for giving such orders were tried and convicted in the Nuremburg Trials by international courts for their crimes.

While America knew about pre-war Nazi discrimination against the Jews, it did little to protest or demand an end to it. There was a heated debate in the nation about American involvement in or isolation from European disputes. The U.S. refused to expand its immigration policies to accept more Jews fleeing from Nazi persecution.

Anne Frank's Iowa Pen Pal

Iowa played a peripheral role in the debate on Nazi persecution. Some Iowans who traveled to Europe, including some Jewish Iowans, reported on disturbing trends in Germany. One connection stands out. In 1939, a teacher in the southeast Iowa town of Danville arranged for her students to select names pen pals. Margaret Wagner, 10, chose a girl her own age who lived in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The girl’s name was Anne Frank. Margaret and Anne wrote several letters back and forth until Anne stopped writing. Margaret did not know why.

The reason was that Anne and her family had gone into hiding where they would stay for several years until they were discovered by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp where Anne died. After the war, Anne Frank's diary written as the family was in hiding, was discovered and became one of the most famous documents in the Jewish experience under Nazi oppression. Today, a museum in Danville, The Anne Frank Connection, tells the story of the two girls. Their letters are on display, one of the two places in the world where visitors can see the correspondence itself.

In 2013, there was a groundbreaking for the Iowa Holocaust Memorial on the grounds of the Iowa Capitol. Today, it stands as a grim reminder of the Nazi genocide and a memorial to those who suffered it.

Supporting Questions

What was the Holocaust?

• Telegram from Sir G. Ogilvie Forbes about "Kristallnacht," November 10, 1938 (Document)
• Telegram from Gerhart Riegner to S.S. Silverman about Jewish Extermination in Concentration Camps, August 10, 1942 (Document)
• Letter to British Labour Leader Clement Attlee about Jewish Persecution from the "Central Leadership" Group in Poland, Date Unknown (Document)
• Illustration of European Refugees in Germany during World War II, 1945 (Image)
• German People of Nordhausen Digging Mass Graves for Concentration Camp Victims, April 1945 (Image)
• Unidentified German Concentration Camp Liberated by the U.S. Army, April 20, 1945 (Image)
• Czech Survivor of a Nazi Concentration Camp in Flossenburg, Germany, May 4, 1945 (Image)

How did America respond to the Holocaust?

• Columnist Dorothy Thompson Urges Congress to Help European Victims of the Nazis, April 22, 1939 (Image)
• "Murray Blasts Nazi Massacre of Jews" Newspaper Article, January 4, 1943 (Document)
• "Jaws of Death" - American Soldiers Landing in Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944 (Image)
• American Soldiers View Rows of Bodies at Lagar Nordhausen Concentration Camp in Germany, April 1945 (Image)
• Ernest Michael Bressler's Certificate of Naturalization, May 7, 1945 (Document)
• Telegram from Holocaust Refugee Steffy Bressler Asking about her Brother in Germany from Des Moines, Iowa, June 6, 1945 (Document)
• Letter from Holocaust Survivor Ingrid Mazie in Mason City, Iowa, to Her Grandmother in Europe, October 25, 1950 (Document)
• S.Res. 458, A Resolution from the U.S. Congress Recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month and Honoring Holocaust Survivors, May 22, 2014 (Document)
• Registration Letter for Helga Levy of Des Moines, Date Unknown (Document)
• Postcard Asking for Financial Assistance for Holocaust Survivors, Date Unknown (Document)

 How has America responded to other genocides?

• Action Items for Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs' (APNSA) Trip to Rwanda, December 1994 (Document)
• Letter from U.S. President Bill Clinton to Burundi President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, 15 January 1996 (Document)
• Sudanese Refugee Women and Children at Camp Mile in Chad, May 9, 2004 (Image)
• Sudanese Refugee Women and Children at Camp Tine in Chad, May 10, 2004 (Image)
• S.Res. 203 - A resolution by U.S. Congress Calling for China to Use Its Influence to Stop Genocide and Violence in Darfur, Sudan, May 16, 2007 (Document)
• S.Res. 455 - A Resolution by the U.S. Congress Calling for Peace in Darfur, March 5, 2008 (Document)
• "Waging Peace: Building a New Life in Chad after Conflict for the Victims of Darfur," January 12, 2009 (Video)

Additional Resources

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  This is the main website for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is based in Washington, D.C. The website offers many online resources, such as major photo collections, research articles and online testimonials of Holocaust survivors. 
• The National Archives of the United Kingdom - Holocaust Exhibit
  This website for the United Kingdom's National Archives includes primary sources related to the Holocaust. 
• Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
  Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. This is the memorial's official website, which includes large digital collections of photos, videos, etc., about the Holocaust, its victims and it survivors. 
• World Without Genocide
  This website is based out of the Mitchell Hamlin School of Law and includes genocide-related educator materials. 

Iowa Core Social Studies Standards (7th Grade)

Listed below are the Iowa Core Social Studies content anchor standards that are best reflected in this source set. The content standards applied to this set are high school-age level and encompass the key disciplines that make up social studies for seventh-grade students.

• SS.7.13. Identify social, political and economic factors that can influence our thoughts and behavior.
• SS.7.15. Distinguish and apply the powers and responsibilities of global citizens, interest groups and the media in a variety of governmental and nongovernmental contexts. (21st century skills)
• SS.7.21. Evaluate the push and pull factors involved in human population movement and patterns.
• SS.7.24. Analyze connections among historical events and developments in contemporary global issues.
• SS.7.27. Analyze the role that Iowa plays in contemporary global issues.