WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.240 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Kathryn, whenever you're ready. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:11.040 [Kathryn Walters] Okay! So hi everyone, again I'm Kathryn and today's talk will be about American Immigration and 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:18.460 refugee policy throughout the Holocaust and I helped Anthony and others at the library write the grant to bring 00:00:18.460 --> 00:00:23.520 the traveling exhibit to Tech and I'm really excited that it's there but I'm sad that I have to miss it. 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:29.220 I was really excited for this grant because not only that it relates to my thesis topic, 00:00:29.220 --> 00:00:35.600 but also I think it's gonna teach a lot of people what we're not usually taught about the Holocaust. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:40.740 I think so much of what we learn about this time period is about America in World War II 00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:46.040 or America's war effort, not really the impact that America had on the Holocaust 00:00:46.040 --> 00:00:49.500 or potential impacts it could have had on the Holocaust. 00:00:49.500 --> 00:00:53.540 So if you get the chance, go visit it and there's also, of course, the permanent, well, 00:00:53.540 --> 00:00:57.760 I don't think it's a permanent exhibit, but there is an exhibit at the Holocaust Museum in DC 00:00:57.760 --> 00:01:04.220 and if you haven't been to that museum, it's also it's amazing but it's also very difficult 00:01:04.220 --> 00:01:09.440 and today's talk might be a little difficult as well, but I hope that it's interesting and eye-opening. 00:01:09.460 --> 00:01:17.220 So, Anthony, if you can go to the second slide for me and if we can start that one off with the poll question. 00:01:17.900 --> 00:01:22.180 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Yup. So, I'm going to launch the poll now before we switch to the slide. 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:32.340 It's true/false, so it should appear on your screen and if you just indicate what you know. 00:01:32.340 --> 00:01:37.980 So true or false: the American government had refugee policies set in place before World War II. 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:45.880 [Pause] 00:01:45.880 --> 00:01:50.000 So far no responses. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:58.200 [Kathryn Walters] If you click the polls button, it's at the bottom of my screen it'll bring up the questions 00:01:58.200 --> 00:01:59.560 and you can answer true or false. 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:07.120 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Ah okay so you should have a button to click that says polling or polls 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:12.160 and if you bring that up you should see the question and be able to answer it there. 00:02:12.160 --> 00:02:16.900 [Pause] 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:20.480 You do not. Hmm, 00:02:20.480 --> 00:02:24.440 [Pause] 00:02:24.460 --> 00:02:32.360 Well, I'm not gonna sit here and try and troubleshoot this, so I'm gonna end that poll and we will move on. 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:40.420 This is new technology for our presentation purposes, so I apologize for that. 00:02:40.420 --> 00:02:43.260 If you want to proceed, you're welcome to now. 00:02:43.260 --> 00:02:48.080 [Pause] 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:54.960 [Kathryn Walters] World War II resulted in the largest scale of human displacement and forced migration in history. 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:59.940 With no official international protocol to address such high levels of displacement, 00:02:59.940 --> 00:03:05.420 refugee protections were an unfamiliar concept, especially in American politics. 00:03:05.420 --> 00:03:13.220 The outcome of World War I initiated international human rights legislation, 00:03:13.220 --> 00:03:17.080 but no international body was set in place to enforce these principles. 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:22.467 In fact, an official policy to implement protection of persecuted refugees would not be created until 00:03:22.467 --> 00:03:26.600 the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. 00:03:27.600 --> 00:03:33.720 Throughout the 1930s, it became imperative for German Jews to emigrate due to increasingly intense 00:03:33.720 --> 00:03:38.660 and apparent anti-Semitic aggression and legalized forms of racism in German society. 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:43.620 Although the United States government acknowledged the plight of victims of Nazi oppression 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:49.140 in the 1930s and 40s and even later helped create international legislation to assist refugees 00:03:49.140 --> 00:03:56.160 throughout 1944 and 1941, the majority of the American government saw threats of national security 00:03:56.160 --> 00:04:01.380 and economic constraints as reason to downplay the seriousness of Jewish persecution in Europe, 00:04:01.380 --> 00:04:05.980 which prevented the United States from helping Jewish refugees throughout the Holocaust. 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:12.440 Historians of US political history and the Holocaust debate the US government's role 00:04:12.440 --> 00:04:15.780 in the Jewish refugee crisis of the 1930s and 40s. 00:04:16.580 --> 00:04:21.860 While some claim that the U.S. government intentionally abstained from interfering with Germany 00:04:21.860 --> 00:04:26.620 in order to appease Hitler, others claim that the U.S. government could have done more 00:04:26.620 --> 00:04:29.860 in the 1930s to help Jewish refugees. 00:04:29.860 --> 00:04:36.174 Additionally, instead of praising Franklin Roosevelt's aid to refugees given at the end of the war, 00:04:36.174 --> 00:04:40.290 these historians claim that many more Jews could have been saved 00:04:40.290 --> 00:04:44.040 if Roosevelt had created the war refugee board sooner. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:52.000 This research will examine the Wagner Rogers bill and the war refugee board to analyze ways 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.120 in which the United States government approached refugee assistance. 00:04:56.120 --> 00:05:00.280 It uses minute meetings and congressional testimonies of the nonsectarian 00:05:00.280 --> 00:05:05.760 Committee for German Refugee Children, the organization that created the Wagner Rogers Bill, 00:05:05.760 --> 00:05:10.680 to show how refugee need was emphasized in the years leading up to World War II 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:14.820 and materials from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. 00:05:14.820 --> 00:05:19.960 Dominantly, the diary of Secretary of the Treasury to show how the State Department 00:05:19.960 --> 00:05:22.820 dismissed the seriousness of oppression throughout the war. 00:05:22.820 --> 00:05:25.380 [Pause] 00:05:25.400 --> 00:05:28.780 When, Anthony, if you could go to the second slide or third slide. 00:05:29.400 --> 00:05:32.980 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Sure. I did want to share, we did manage to get that poll going 00:05:32.980 --> 00:05:38.620 and I got ten responses about half and half true and false 00:05:38.620 --> 00:05:43.200 as to whether the government had refugee policies set in place before the war. 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:46.740 [Kathryn Walters] Okay. so the answer to that one was false. 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:51.760 The US government did not have refugee policy set in place before World War II. 00:05:51.760 --> 00:05:58.240 [Pause] 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:03.760 Before the creation of international refugee law, states abided by what Phil Orchard, 00:06:03.760 --> 00:06:07.720 Professor of international Relations at the University of Wollongong, 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:11.490 calls tactic laws or widespread cooperation and understanding 00:06:11.490 --> 00:06:17.280 that refugees were distinct from ordinary migrants and that they needed to be protected. 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:23.120 In his 2016 article, The Dawn of International Refugee Protection, Orchard argues 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:29.880 that this protection consisted of the right of exit, or an understanding that persecuted refugees 00:06:29.880 --> 00:06:33.320 had the right to leave one state and be accommodated by another. 00:06:33.320 --> 00:06:40.500 Susanne Lachenicht, professor of early modern history at Bayreuth University, argues similarly 00:06:40.500 --> 00:06:46.180 and refugees and refugee protection in the early modern period, that religious asylum 00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:49.880 motivated many states to take responsibility for forced migrants. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:55.860 After Christian charity ran out, however, many states only wanted to accept refugees 00:06:55.860 --> 00:06:59.800 that made their state more economically or militarily competitive. 00:07:00.780 --> 00:07:05.880 These unofficial agreements can be considered the earliest forms of international humanitarianism 00:07:05.880 --> 00:07:09.680 that set guidelines for protecting refugees or oppressed peoples. 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:16.000 American intervention and the International Humanitarianism on Behalf of Persecuted People's 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:20.000 began in Armenia almost a half century before the Holocaust. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:23.760 American religious, philanthropic, and charity organizations 00:07:23.760 --> 00:07:31.640 called for medical and economic relief in Armenia after Sultan Abdul Hamid II commanded the massacres 00:07:31.640 --> 00:07:35.620 of 200,000 Christian Armenians in the 1890s. 00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:40.840 The National Armenian Relief Committee held fundraisers to provide goods and services 00:07:40.840 --> 00:07:46.760 and the Red Cross was the first American organization to give medical relief to the Armenian victims. 00:07:47.820 --> 00:07:53.180 Finally, the American government took political action against the Sultan in 1896 00:07:53.180 --> 00:07:59.640 and passed the Cullum resolution, the first international human rights resolution in American history 00:07:59.640 --> 00:08:04.360 which condemned Sultan Abdul Hamid the second for the Armenian massacres. 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:12.960 However, in 1915 after the Ottoman Empire systematically killed 1.5 Armenians, 00:08:12.960 --> 00:08:19.000 the American political response was much less humanitarian than it was in 1890s. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:24.780 Although the American public and humanitarian groups adamantly called for similar relief actions 00:08:24.780 --> 00:08:27.700 against the Armenians, some of which were answered, 00:08:27.700 --> 00:08:34.080 Ultimately the American drived for oil and the Middle East led to the abandonment of Armenia. 00:08:34.760 --> 00:08:39.420 From a political standpoint, assisting Jewish refugees in the 1930s 00:08:39.420 --> 00:08:42.600 would have impeded American domestic concerns. 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:47.440 The combination of high unemployment rates after the stock market crash of 1929, 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:52.760 the quota women set on obtainable visas established by the 1924 Immigration Act, 00:08:52.760 --> 00:08:57.900 an isolationist sentiment after the impact of World War I, and xenophobia caused 00:08:57.900 --> 00:09:02.540 the United States government and people to become hesitant to allow outsiders into America. 00:09:03.680 --> 00:09:07.520 The United States had a strict immigration policy in place that set of limit 00:09:07.520 --> 00:09:12.360 on the number of immigrants that can enter the United States each year according to their country of origin. 00:09:13.180 --> 00:09:19.760 This limit or quota system favored Western European immigrants over Southern or Eastern immigrants. 00:09:19.760 --> 00:09:27.660 For example, between 1925 and 1928 the quota for Great Britain averaged about 30,000 immigrants, 00:09:27.660 --> 00:09:34.551 Germany averaged about 49,000, Sweden averaged about 9,000, in Norway 6,000, 00:09:34.560 --> 00:09:43.480 Bulgaria stayed an average of nine immigrants a year, Latvia 137 immigrants, and Yugoslavia 600. 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:48.646 The middle eastern parts of Africa or Asia were restricted to only a hundred immigrants a year 00:09:48.646 --> 00:09:51.360 or prohibited from emigration entirely. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:54.320 [Pause] 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:59.580 Author Lynn Olson explains in those angry days, Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's fight over 00:09:59.580 --> 00:10:04.480 World War II, the United States initial hesitation to assist England in France against Germany, 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:09.440 and evaluates the debates between non-interventionists and interventionists. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:12.280 [Pause] 00:10:12.300 --> 00:10:17.260 For the non-interventionists, in her words, "we had been tricked into coming to the aid of Britain and France 00:10:17.260 --> 00:10:23.800 in 1917 thereby losing more than fifty thousand of our young men and providing our allies 00:10:23.800 --> 00:10:25.600 with loans that were never repaid." 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:31.300 "For these non-interventionists, it was not America's responsibility to assist those countries 00:10:31.300 --> 00:10:34.760 who could not settle their own disputes," in her words. 00:10:34.760 --> 00:10:38.202 "America's duty was to its own national security, 00:10:38.202 --> 00:10:42.060 which would be risked if they tried to bail out the rest of Europe again." 00:10:42.060 --> 00:10:46.900 For interventionist, "America had the duty and moral obligation to prevent the Nazi evil 00:10:46.900 --> 00:10:50.200 from spreading throughout Europe and taking over the Western world." 00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:54.740 In the late 1930s, the United States government believed that, in order to best promote peace 00:10:54.740 --> 00:11:00.300 and prevent international conflict, they could not appear to take sides by interfering the armament, 00:11:00.300 --> 00:11:05.180 or governing policies of other nations, which, hopefully, would defer Hitler from starting a war. 00:11:05.180 --> 00:11:11.400 To American isolationists, assisting German Jews could be perceived as a threat to their sovereignty. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:18.360 Congress also considered many restricting immigration and deportation bills during this time. 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:25.020 In 1939, representative John Dempsey from New Mexico proposed a bill to exclude and deport aliens 00:11:25.020 --> 00:11:30.860 who supported or were affiliated with an organization that advocated the making of any changes 00:11:30.860 --> 00:11:32.520 in American forms of government. 00:11:33.040 --> 00:11:38.060 Robert Reynolds, senator from North Carolina, introduced five related bills 00:11:38.060 --> 00:11:40.940 to prevent immigration or boost deportation. 00:11:40.940 --> 00:11:46.140 On the other hand, only two refugee bills were proposed in 1939. 00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:53.080 In addition to the Wagner Rogers bill, Representative Emanuel Celler from New York promoted an act 00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:59.160 which stated that no alien shall be denied admission or deported if such alien is a refugee for 00:11:59.160 --> 00:12:03.220 political, racial, or religious reasons from the country of his origin. 00:12:04.160 --> 00:12:08.220 However, anti-immigration and refugee political proposals far outweighed 00:12:08.220 --> 00:12:10.380 the bills that would have helped oppressed peoples. 00:12:10.380 --> 00:12:13.260 [Pause] 00:12:13.260 --> 00:12:18.520 And then, Anthony there is a poll question for the next slide as well. 00:12:18.520 --> 00:12:21.080 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Yup. I'm gonna try and launch that poll now. 00:12:21.080 --> 00:12:27.999 The question itself reads: True or false, the Nazi government created hundreds of policies and mandates 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.360 that excluded Jews from German society before World War II started. 00:12:34.380 --> 00:12:41.140 So that should be launched live now. If it's not, I will attempt to launch it again. 00:12:41.140 --> 00:12:47.680 [Pause] 00:12:47.680 --> 00:12:49.920 Did you see it pop up Kathryn? 00:12:49.920 --> 00:12:52.540 [Pause] 00:12:52.540 --> 00:13:01.900 [Kathryn Walters] So what I did, is I hit polls again and then there's a down arrow on the right side at the top 00:13:01.900 --> 00:13:07.980 and you can click to go to polling to slide four. I have to click on it and it takes me to it. 00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:12.560 [Pause] 00:13:12.560 --> 00:13:14.300 Did that work for other people? 00:13:14.300 --> 00:13:18.811 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] It looks like it's not live now. So, for some reason it's not launching 00:13:18.820 --> 00:13:23.440 when I put launch. I have to end it and then relaunch it and then it works. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:29.960 [Pause] 00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:33.920 So we'll give a couple of seconds for people to answer that question. 00:13:33.920 --> 00:13:51.020 [Pause] 00:13:51.020 --> 00:13:54.040 It looks like about half the people have responded. 00:13:54.040 --> 00:13:59.640 I think we'll go ahead and end that and I will share those results. 00:13:59.640 --> 00:14:02.860 You should hopefully be able to see the results on the screen. 00:14:02.860 --> 00:14:05.320 [Pause] 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:11.020 [Kathryn Walters] Everyone said true, which is correct, unfortunately. 00:14:11.020 --> 00:14:15.540 [Pause] 00:14:15.540 --> 00:14:21.600 News had reached America by the mid to late 1930s from government officials and American journalists 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:24.040 that Nazis were persecuting minority groups. 00:14:24.040 --> 00:14:29.620 American magazines and newspapers regularly printed reports on rising tensions in Germany. 00:14:29.620 --> 00:14:34.780 Americans who followed the news were made aware of Nazi persecution of the Jews which range from: 00:14:34.780 --> 00:14:42.740 slandering propaganda, boycotts, book-burning, destruction of Jewish businesses, anti-jewish legislation 00:14:42.740 --> 00:14:45.580 and internment in concentration camps. 00:14:45.580 --> 00:14:51.160 The Nazi government endorsed and encouraged Jewish segregation from German society throughout the 1930s. 00:14:52.040 --> 00:14:58.560 Marion Kaplan argues in "Between Dignity and Despair," that after Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, 00:14:58.560 --> 00:15:03.080 the Jews of Germany were stripped of their political and economic livelihood. 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:11.460 An experience what she calls social death, or the deliberate acts of anti-semitism 00:15:11.460 --> 00:15:15.860 that progressively isolated Jews more and more from German society. 00:15:15.860 --> 00:15:19.440 They had been subjected to anti-semitism for as long as Jews had been in Germany, 00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:26.140 but in the years leading up to World War II the tensions between German Jews and non-jewish Germans 00:15:26.140 --> 00:15:29.520 intensified due to Nazi propaganda and policies. 00:15:29.520 --> 00:15:37.200 In fact between 1933 and 1939, 400 decrees and regulations were created that 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:40.280 restricted all aspects of Jewish public and private life. 00:15:41.260 --> 00:15:47.040 This process robbed Jews of their citizenship and enacted laws that affected Jewish employment, 00:15:47.040 --> 00:15:53.940 access to education, where they could buy goods, where they could live, and who they could marry. 00:15:53.940 --> 00:15:58.640 Jews were harassed, attacked, and turned and deported more and more frequently. 00:15:58.640 --> 00:16:03.920 The Nazis anti-semitic scheme ultimately ostracized Jews in their communities and country 00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:07.440 and increasingly struck more and more fears into their everyday lives. 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:12.500 Many Jews, in response, attempted to flee Nazi control. 00:16:12.500 --> 00:16:16.740 Typically those emigrating from Germany had to register for a waiting list, 00:16:16.740 --> 00:16:22.620 present their birth certificate and a certificate of good conduct from German authorities, 00:16:22.620 --> 00:16:27.580 find at least one American financial supporter who would take responsibility for them, 00:16:27.580 --> 00:16:35.580 collect transit visas, buy passage to America, and be evaluated by the United States consulate. 00:16:35.580 --> 00:16:39.120 All of this was necessary to prove that one would not be a financial burden 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:42.840 or a health or national security risk to the United States. 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:46.760 This process was expensive and took months to complete. 00:16:46.760 --> 00:16:51.600 The necessary immigration documents one had received prior approval for could expire before the process 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:56.160 was completed, which meant many applicants had to start the process over at least once. 00:16:56.160 --> 00:16:57.860 [Pause] 00:16:57.860 --> 00:17:00.120 And, Anthony, if you can go to the next slide please. 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:04.540 [Pause] 00:17:04.540 --> 00:17:06.880 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Did you want to start the poll? 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:10.800 [Kathryn Walters] Is there a poll for the fifth one? Yeah we can start the poll for that one. 00:17:10.800 --> 00:17:11.740 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] So... 00:17:11.740 --> 00:17:13.760 [Pause] 00:17:13.760 --> 00:17:21.020 Let's see if that works. It should be live now. Let me know in chat if you don't see it. 00:17:21.020 --> 00:17:28.160 [Pause] 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:31.420 All right. I'm going to relaunch. 00:17:31.420 --> 00:17:35.900 [Pause] 00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:36.920 Okay 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:42.040 [Pause] 00:17:42.040 --> 00:17:48.060 So the text of this poll is: had you heard of the Wagner Rogers bill before the introduction tonight? 00:17:48.060 --> 00:17:53.600 [Pause] 00:17:53.600 --> 00:17:59.960 [Kathryn Rogers] And I picked this question because this is what I wrote my thesis on was the Wagner Rogers Bill. 00:17:59.960 --> 00:18:05.200 When I was trying to decide how to do my thesis, I decided that the summers between 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:12.720 1938 and 1939 were when America could have had a really big impact on the Jewish refugee crisis 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:19.580 and I looked at this bill and multiple other events but that was that was a little too broad to tackle. 00:18:19.580 --> 00:18:23.920 But I'd never heard of the Wagner Rogers Bill and that's what we're gonna talk about in our next section, 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:28.020 but I had never heard of it before I was in grad school and I don't know if other people are aware of this. 00:18:29.320 --> 00:18:33.020 That's why I wanted to ask this question to see if other people have heard of this before. 00:18:33.020 --> 00:18:35.680 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] All right. The poll has been live now for about a minute. 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:38.660 I'm gonna go ahead and end it and share the results so the results. 00:18:38.660 --> 00:18:40.900 [Pause] 00:18:40.900 --> 00:18:44.220 So, the results should be popping up on your screen. 00:18:44.220 --> 00:18:47.900 [Pause] 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:53.780 [Kathryn Walters] Some people have heard of it. I wonder if it's the people who helped me make my exhibit for the library. 00:18:53.780 --> 00:18:56.740 [Pause] 00:18:56.740 --> 00:19:00.540 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] It's possible. I will go ahead and move on to the next slide there. 00:19:00.540 --> 00:19:05.940 [Kathryn Walters] Thank you. So, during this time the majority of American politicians either 00:19:05.940 --> 00:19:10.700 dismissed the seriousness Jewish refugee need or did nothing to ameliorate it. 00:19:10.700 --> 00:19:17.260 In July of 1938, 32 countries met in Evian, France to discuss the growing concern for Jewish Germans 00:19:17.260 --> 00:19:20.060 and the potential for raising immigration quotas. 00:19:20.060 --> 00:19:24.180 Although these countries, including the United States, expressed their sympathy for the Jews, 00:19:24.180 --> 00:19:29.480 the majority claimed not to have the political or economic ability to raise quotas. 00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:34.240 In response to the government's inaction, Marion Kenworthy, a child psychologist and 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:39.460 Clarence Pickett, the director of the American Friends Service Committee, persuaded Secretary of Labor, 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:45.400 Francis Perkins, and First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, to promote a bill that would challenge the US government's 00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:51.200 strict immigration laws and allow persecuted children to come to United States and live in American homes. 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:57.260 The Wagner Rogers Bill named for Senator Robert Wagner of New York and Representative Edith Rogers of 00:19:57.260 --> 00:20:02.340 Massachusetts and introduced in February of 1939, sought to allow 00:20:02.340 --> 00:20:06.240 the entry of 20,000 refugee children from Germany. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:12.020 Together, Kenworthy and Pickett created the Non-Sectarian Committee for German Refugee Children 00:20:12.020 --> 00:20:16.940 and crafted a proposal to place thousands of oppressed children with host homes in the United States 00:20:16.940 --> 00:20:22.120 in order to give them back an opportunity for a safer and more normal childhood. 00:20:22.120 --> 00:20:26.340 This plan faced a number of challenges, but the United States government's strict immigration laws 00:20:26.340 --> 00:20:28.640 were the most serious obstacle. 00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:35.080 The Non-Sectarian Committee for German Refugee Children consisted of American child welfare workers, 00:20:35.080 --> 00:20:40.260 members of the American Friends Service Committee, members of the German Jewish Children's Aid, 00:20:40.260 --> 00:20:43.420 and leaders of American religious organizations. 00:20:43.420 --> 00:20:47.820 The American Friends Service Committee was a Quaker relief group founded during World War I 00:20:47.820 --> 00:20:54.420 and the German Jewish Children's Aid, a fundraising coalition, initiated in 1934 for young refugees 00:20:54.420 --> 00:20:58.960 were two prominent associations that operated for international humanitarianism 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:02.400 during the Jewish refugee crisis of the 1930s. 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:13.620 The committee met several times between December of 1938 and July of 1939 to plan for the prospective 00:21:13.620 --> 00:21:20.860 children's selection abroad, transportation to United States, placement in homes, and healthcare. 00:21:20.860 --> 00:21:26.720 For the members of this committee, persecuted children in Germany had lost their right to a normal childhood. 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:32.560 Discrimination and persecution caused Jewish children, in particular, to face isolationism in school, 00:21:32.560 --> 00:21:37.500 threatened the stability of their home life, and took away their access to medical care. 00:21:37.500 --> 00:21:41.000 The committee worked vigorously for months to prepare the Wagner Rogers Bill 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:43.000 with congressional proposals and hearings. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:47.720 The plan created by the committee became the foundation for the testimonies in support of the bill. 00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:52.820 The preparation done by the committee was intended to allow its supporters, dominantly members 00:21:52.820 --> 00:21:57.440 of that committee, to succinctly explain why the bill was both humane and practical, 00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.700 but these objectives were heavily contested. 00:22:01.140 --> 00:22:07.260 In late April and May of 1939, subcommittees of the Senate's committee on immigration and 00:22:07.260 --> 00:22:10.780 the House of Representatives Committee on Immigration and Naturalization 00:22:10.780 --> 00:22:13.580 held joint hearings on the Wagner Rogers Bill. 00:22:13.580 --> 00:22:17.340 Supporters of the bill believed that the Wagner Rogers Bill was not only manageable, 00:22:17.340 --> 00:22:21.960 but also a necessary humanitarian response to anti-semitic tragedies in Germany. 00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:27.380 While, opponents of the bill referred to American poverty, unemployment, and isolationism 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:29.180 as justifications against. 00:22:29.180 --> 00:22:31.100 [Pause] 00:22:31.100 --> 00:22:33.140 Anthony if you can do the next slide please. 00:22:33.140 --> 00:22:36.480 [Pause] 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:42.200 Senator Reynolds, who I previously mentioned, introduced anti-immigration and deportation bills 00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:47.120 in 1939, was the most outspoken member of Congress against the bill. 00:22:47.120 --> 00:22:51.320 America was conflicted between staying neutral or assisting Nazi victims, 00:22:51.320 --> 00:22:57.740 but Reynolds made his isolationist attitude clear when he pushed five anti-immigration bills in 1939, 00:22:57.740 --> 00:23:02.400 including a proposal to stop immigration into United States for five years. 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:07.960 Reynolds fear of admitting refugees was not swayed by the proposal of the Wagner Rogers Bill. 00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:13.760 Supporters of the bill stressed the humanitarian basis of it, but Reynolds claimed that this was a false idea used 00:23:13.760 --> 00:23:18.920 to create sympathy, to relax existing immigration policies, and later change the quota system 00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:21.300 to let in more immigrants. 00:23:21.300 --> 00:23:26.940 Reynolds believed that America needed to be protected from alien enemies and exaggerated the idea 00:23:26.940 --> 00:23:32.260 of foreigners commonly being criminals for people who wanted to dismantle the American political system 00:23:32.260 --> 00:23:33.700 or ways of life. 00:23:33.700 --> 00:23:37.940 He spoke out against people who supported increased immigration and who stated 00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:42.080 that immigrants positively contributed to American culture. 00:23:42.080 --> 00:23:45.840 He remained staunchly against any alteration of American immigration policy, 00:23:45.840 --> 00:23:48.220 even in the case of victimized children. 00:23:49.180 --> 00:23:54.260 On July 9th, the Senate Committee on immigration submitted an amendment to the Wagner Rogers Bill. 00:23:54.260 --> 00:24:00.360 For the 20,000 children to be admitted, immigration into the United States would be prohibited for five years. 00:24:00.360 --> 00:24:04.800 This was essentially a compromise between the Wagner Rogers Bill and Senator Reynolds Bill 00:24:04.800 --> 00:24:07.860 to stop immigration into the United States for five years. 00:24:08.840 --> 00:24:12.180 Wagner pulled the bill because of the injustice of this ultimatum and responded 00:24:12.180 --> 00:24:15.440 that his goal was in, by no means, to stop immigration. 00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:19.260 Because Wagner refused this amendment and pulled the bill, it never got to the Senate floor. 00:24:20.820 --> 00:24:23.900 This bill shows that the members of Congress were willing to find a middle ground 00:24:23.900 --> 00:24:26.680 between isolationism and humanitarianism. 00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:30.300 In some capacity, Congress recognized that many parts of the bill had the potential 00:24:30.300 --> 00:24:33.860 to be carried out successfully because the bill was not thrown outright. 00:24:33.860 --> 00:24:38.260 Additionally, their approval meant Congress recognized the emergence of a refugee crisis. 00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:44.580 Refugee activists and child care specialists used their experience and knowledge to demonstrate how best 00:24:44.580 --> 00:24:50.140 to provide care for displaced persons without disturbing American stability but their arguments were thrwarted. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:55.020 The bill was ultimately defeated because it was designed to take an active stance on behalf 00:24:55.020 --> 00:25:00.200 of the growing number of refugees, but by denying asylum to the remaining Nazi victims as the amendment 00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:04.060 called for, Congress chose to ignore a global humanitarian conflict. 00:25:04.060 --> 00:25:06.480 [Pause] 00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:08.980 And Anthony if you could go to the next slide please. 00:25:08.980 --> 00:25:10.360 [Pause] 00:25:10.360 --> 00:25:11.380 Thank you. 00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:12.840 [Pause] 00:25:12.840 --> 00:25:20.460 So, if you guys get the chance to go see the exhibit, one of the things that it'll bring up is the St. Louis 00:25:20.460 --> 00:25:26.400 and this is kind of one of the more popular examples of how America could or could not 00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:29.440 have impacted the Jewish refugee crisis. 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:33.520 So around the same time the Wagner Rogers Bill was pulled, the St. Louis Ocean Liner 00:25:33.520 --> 00:25:36.900 left Hamburg, Germany for Havana, Cuba. 00:25:36.900 --> 00:25:42.060 The ship carried 937 passengers, most of whom were German Jews. 00:25:42.060 --> 00:25:47.280 Once they arrived in May of 1939, however, the ship and all the passengers were forced to leave 00:25:47.280 --> 00:25:49.800 because of nullified landing documents. 00:25:49.800 --> 00:25:54.260 The ship then turned to Miami in hopes to unload in America, but the US government also 00:25:54.260 --> 00:25:57.340 denied the passengers because they did not have entry visas. 00:25:57.340 --> 00:26:02.780 The ship then had to return to Europe and while the United States helped to convince Great Britain, France, 00:26:02.780 --> 00:26:07.520 Belgium, and the Netherlands to take in the refugees, much of these areas were later occupied by 00:26:07.520 --> 00:26:12.140 Nazi Germany and 254 of the St. Louis passengers died in the Holocaust. 00:26:12.140 --> 00:26:15.180 [Pause] 00:26:15.180 --> 00:26:20.840 The maximum amount of German visas were issued in 1939, but war also broke out in Europe that fall, 00:26:20.840 --> 00:26:24.480 which made it even more difficult for European Jews to emigrate to America. 00:26:25.220 --> 00:26:31.080 The US State Department admitted over 27,000 Germans in 1940, almost completely filling their quota, 00:26:31.080 --> 00:26:34.740 but over 300,000 remained on a waiting list. 00:26:34.740 --> 00:26:40.540 In 1941, the State Department restricted immigration as a national security measure and cancelled 00:26:40.540 --> 00:26:46.360 the waiting list in Germany because US consulates in Nazi occupied areas were forced to close 00:26:46.360 --> 00:26:49.920 in July of 1941, which trapped refugees and immigrants. 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:55.140 That year only 17,000 German visas were issued and 10,000 were unissued. 00:26:55.140 --> 00:26:57.540 [Pause] 00:26:57.540 --> 00:27:01.340 And then Anthony I believe the next one is going to be a poll question. 00:27:01.340 --> 00:27:05.340 [Pause] 00:27:05.340 --> 00:27:07.940 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] I'm launching that poll. 00:27:07.940 --> 00:27:10.920 [Pause] 00:27:10.920 --> 00:27:17.780 The question is true or false: Assistant Secretary of State, Breckinridge Long, helped President Roosevelt 00:27:17.780 --> 00:27:20.560 to create the War Refugee Board. 00:27:20.560 --> 00:27:22.320 [Pause] 00:27:22.320 --> 00:27:26.300 So, hopefully that question is displaying for you. 00:27:26.360 --> 00:27:56.260 [Pause] 00:27:56.260 --> 00:28:01.700 I'll let it go a few more seconds we're a little over half of the people have voted. 00:28:01.700 --> 00:28:08.400 [Pause] 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:11.480 And we'll call it. It has been a minute. 00:28:11.480 --> 00:28:14.740 [Pause] 00:28:14.740 --> 00:28:17.500 Give me one second here and I will share the results. 00:28:17.500 --> 00:28:21.760 [Pause] 00:28:21.760 --> 00:28:27.580 I'm showing one vote in the results that I can see, so I'm not sure what's going on there. 00:28:27.580 --> 00:28:35.780 [Kathryn Walters] Mine's a little different. I have eight votes for false and four votes for true. 00:28:35.780 --> 00:28:40.260 So, again, the question was Assistant Secretary of State, Breckenridge Long, helped President Roosevelt 00:28:40.260 --> 00:28:44.460 to create the War Refugee Board, which is false. 00:28:44.460 --> 00:28:46.920 I'll explain why. 00:28:46.920 --> 00:28:52.340 In 1942, US diplomats in Switzerland made the American government aware of mass persecution 00:28:52.340 --> 00:28:58.980 in Nazi controlled territories, but the State Department covered up and ignored Jewish refugee need for years 00:28:58.980 --> 00:29:01.540 after discovering proof of death camps in Europe. 00:29:02.280 --> 00:29:08.200 In mid-January 1944, Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the Treasury, wrote a personal report 00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:10.900 to the president summarizing those indiscretions. 00:29:11.700 --> 00:29:16.840 In his words, the report began, "One of the greatest crimes in history. The slaughter of Jewish people 00:29:16.840 --> 00:29:23.580 in Europe is continuing unabated," and nine pages detailed the procrastination, misrepresentation, 00:29:23.580 --> 00:29:28.620 suppression of facts, deliberate interference with rescue efforts, and anti-semitism of 00:29:28.620 --> 00:29:32.240 State Department officials, especially Breckinridge Long. 00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:38.780 Much like Senator Reynolds, Long, then the Assistant Secretary of State, understated Jewish victimization. 00:29:38.780 --> 00:29:45.020 Morgenthau collaborated with lawyers John Powell, who worked for the Treasury Department, and Randolph Paul 00:29:45.020 --> 00:29:50.160 to convince President Roosevelt to take political action on behalf of Jewish refugees. 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:56.640 Within a week of seeing this report, the President issued executive order 9417, which established 00:29:56.640 --> 00:30:00.600 the War Refugee Board on January 22nd, 1944. 00:30:00.600 --> 00:30:02.340 [Pause] 00:30:02.340 --> 00:30:04.360 Anthony if you can go to the next slide, please. 00:30:04.360 --> 00:30:07.980 [Pause] 00:30:07.980 --> 00:30:11.840 The president agreed that something needed to be done for the Nazi victims and the creation of 00:30:11.840 --> 00:30:18.040 the War Refugee Board was the first time America had any policy at all to address mass murder. 00:30:18.040 --> 00:30:22.960 Roosevelt announced the board would develop plans for the rescue, maintenance, transportation, and relief 00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:29.940 of the victims of Nazism and, if possible, oversee safe haven for refugees who escaped Nazi occupation. 00:30:30.660 --> 00:30:35.940 Although there remains debate that Roosevelt acted too late or did not do enough, this was a significant 00:30:35.940 --> 00:30:39.020 humanitarian step taken by the United States government. 00:30:40.120 --> 00:30:45.500 Morgenthou's dominant evidence against the State Department was Long's concealment of their cable 00:30:45.500 --> 00:30:48.620 that ordered the suspension of information about the Holocaust. 00:30:49.160 --> 00:30:53.820 First in his report to the president, he addressed the fact that the State Department had been receiving 00:30:53.820 --> 00:31:00.640 communications from the World Jewish Congress, an organization established in 1936 in Bern, Switzerland 00:31:00.640 --> 00:31:04.860 on behalf of Jewish communities and set up financial arraignments for the evacuation 00:31:04.860 --> 00:31:07.560 of Jews from Romanian France. 00:31:07.560 --> 00:31:13.200 The State Department instructed US officials, in turn, to stop sending reports about the Jewish persecution 00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:18.160 and avoided addressing the cable for months until the Treasury Department uncovered the hidden reports. 00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:23.200 The State Department also received cables from an individual representative of the World Jewish Congress 00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:30.360 confirming mass execution of Jews in 1942 in extensive details of living conditions and deportation to camps, 00:31:30.360 --> 00:31:34.660 but the State Department also tried to stop this communication with the excuse 00:31:34.660 --> 00:31:37.900 that reports from private individuals should not be accepted. 00:31:39.080 --> 00:31:43.100 When the Treasury Department became aware that the State Department was corresponding with 00:31:43.100 --> 00:31:48.360 the World Jewish Congress, the State Department told them it was strictly political communication with 00:31:48.360 --> 00:31:51.320 little significance to anyone outside the European division. 00:31:52.320 --> 00:31:56.280 These cover-ups were proof that the State Department had obstructed information and wanted 00:31:56.280 --> 00:32:00.720 to keep the rest of the government from learning about Hitler's plans to exterminate the Jews. 00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:06.000 They show that the president would have had cause and concrete proof of genocide almost a year and a half 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:10.180 before the creation of the War Refugee Board, but many members of the government purposely 00:32:10.180 --> 00:32:12.560 worked to thwart rescue attacks. 00:32:13.640 --> 00:32:19.260 Multiple factors contributed to the opposition of refugees assistance including: xenophobia 00:32:19.260 --> 00:32:25.040 and economic constraints, but also a fear that it would impede military goals or bring in Communists 00:32:25.040 --> 00:32:28.400 and resentment that it contradicted pre-existing immigration laws. 00:32:29.240 --> 00:32:34.380 Roosevelt and Morgenthau received numerous anti-semitic letters and Senator Reynolds even questioned 00:32:34.380 --> 00:32:38.900 the President's decision in a correspondence with Morgenthau asking as to just what ground 00:32:38.900 --> 00:32:40.860 the president based his authority. 00:32:40.860 --> 00:32:45.260 Permitting refugees or anyone else to enter the country outside of our quotas were in violation 00:32:45.260 --> 00:32:48.180 of our present immigration statutes. 00:32:48.180 --> 00:32:52.360 President Long was unsympathetic to Nazi oppression of Jewish refugees. 00:32:52.360 --> 00:32:56.500 In his diary he claimed that the U.S. could not do anything for the Jews because they already had 00:32:56.500 --> 00:33:03.300 immigration quotas set in place that restricted the number of people allowed to migrate to America, 00:33:03.300 --> 00:33:07.380 that communists would disguise themselves with refugees to get into the United States, 00:33:07.380 --> 00:33:10.040 and that assisting refugees would impede the war effort. 00:33:10.040 --> 00:33:13.260 After the creation of the War Refugee Board, he was removed from his position 00:33:13.260 --> 00:33:16.720 with the Visa Division and Immigration Services. 00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:21.100 In spite of his opposition, the War Refugee Board helped thousands of Jewish refugees, 00:33:21.100 --> 00:33:23.460 albeit a highly controversial measure. 00:33:23.460 --> 00:33:24.920 [Pause] 00:33:24.920 --> 00:33:27.000 Anthony if you go to the next slide please. 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:31.080 [Pause] 00:33:31.080 --> 00:33:35.460 World War II began in Europe within months of the retraction of the Wagner Rogers Bill 00:33:35.460 --> 00:33:40.920 and persecution of European Jews intensified exponentially throughout the early to mid 1940s. 00:33:40.920 --> 00:33:46.800 In 1939 and 1940, German immigration quotas were filled, but it became almost impossible 00:33:46.800 --> 00:33:49.420 for Jews to escape by 1941. 00:33:49.420 --> 00:33:54.520 The Nazi government forcibly closed the United States consulates in Germany and their occupied countries, 00:33:54.520 --> 00:33:56.300 which prevented Jewish emigration. 00:33:56.300 --> 00:34:02.760 Additionally, the United States State Department issued fewer and fewer visas as an act of national security. 00:34:02.760 --> 00:34:09.120 Jews trapped in Nazi controlled Europe were murdered, put in ghettos, and sent to concentration camps. 00:34:09.120 --> 00:34:14.080 In 1944, the United States President, Franklin Roosevelt, created the War Refugee Board, 00:34:14.080 --> 00:34:18.140 an organization to assist Jewish refugees, which saved thousands of lives. 00:34:18.140 --> 00:34:21.020 It was the only American rescue attempt during the Holocaust. 00:34:21.800 --> 00:34:29.760 Overall, the United States took in about 200,000 mostly Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1945. 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:36.420 After World War II, about 6.5 million surviving people were displaced by the conflict 00:34:36.420 --> 00:34:41.160 and the United Nations was formed after the war, in part, to respond to Nazi atrocities. 00:34:41.160 --> 00:34:47.800 In 1951, the United States High Commission for Refugees created a legal definition of refugees 00:34:47.800 --> 00:34:52.560 and outlined the rights of the displaced as well as the legal obligations of states to protect them. 00:34:53.560 --> 00:34:57.260 The American government may have been slow to come to the aid of Jewish refugees 00:34:57.260 --> 00:34:59.660 and, in some cases, staunchly opposed to it. 00:34:59.660 --> 00:35:04.500 However, certain actors, like the members of the Non-Sectarian Committee for German Refugee Children 00:35:04.500 --> 00:35:09.340 and the War Refugee Board, demonstrate that some Americans not only felt responsible 00:35:09.340 --> 00:35:15.360 for expanding refugee protection, but they also took action to initiate greater international humanitarian 00:35:15.360 --> 00:35:19.440 cooperation throughout the Holocaust, even in the face of substantial opposition. 00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:21.320 [Pause] 00:35:21.320 --> 00:35:23.220 And Anthony if you can go to the next slide. 00:35:23.220 --> 00:35:24.180 [Pause] 00:35:24.180 --> 00:35:27.540 I'm gonna give you guys a minute to read over these. 00:35:27.540 --> 00:35:29.040 [Pause] 00:35:29.040 --> 00:35:38.340 Part of what I did when I wrote my my thesis was I compared rhetoric between historic and modern 00:35:38.340 --> 00:35:46.960 anti-immigration attitudes and I made an exhibit that went up in the library and I posted these quotations 00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:53.000 next to each other, like comparing them to what people use as arguments against immigration refugees 00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:57.500 in the 1930s and 1940s and today's anti-immigration rhetoric. 00:35:57.500 --> 00:36:02.700 [Pause] 00:36:02.700 --> 00:36:07.060 As a member of the United Nations, the United States is bound to uphold refugee protocol 00:36:07.060 --> 00:36:09.240 and shelter displaced persons. 00:36:09.240 --> 00:36:15.380 The Refugee Act of 1980 was created in order to help refugees settle and become self-sufficient in America. 00:36:15.380 --> 00:36:20.540 Under this legislation, the President of the United States determines the number of people allowed to enter 00:36:20.540 --> 00:36:23.140 into a country as refugees. 00:36:23.140 --> 00:36:27.520 President Donald Trump set this number to 30,000 refugees for 2019, 00:36:27.520 --> 00:36:32.020 the lowest it has been since the Refugee Act was enacted. 00:36:32.020 --> 00:36:35.840 In addition to cutting the number of refugees allowed into the United States, the Trump administration 00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:39.260 has simultaneously pushed for limited immigration policies. 00:36:39.260 --> 00:36:44.280 Similar to historic refugee and immigration opposition, the Trump administration has expressed that 00:36:44.280 --> 00:36:50.120 foreigners pose a threat to national security, job safety, and the stability of the welfare state. 00:36:51.100 --> 00:36:57.360 This continuation of anti-immigrant stance is reflected by statements for opponents of the Wagner Rogers Bill. 00:36:57.360 --> 00:37:01.460 This racist rhetoric displayed in these statements is especially striking when compared side-by-side 00:37:01.460 --> 00:37:03.580 with statements made by President Trump. 00:37:03.580 --> 00:37:08.220 This rhetoric has profound impact on migrants and refugees today because it gives a sense of 00:37:08.220 --> 00:37:12.140 political legitimacy to anti-refugee and anti-immigration attitudes. 00:37:12.140 --> 00:37:16.000 [Pause] 00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:19.200 And then Anthony, you can go to the last slide. Thank you. 00:37:19.200 --> 00:37:20.700 [Pause] 00:37:20.700 --> 00:37:26.940 In 2017, Trump signed an executive order, known as the Muslim ban, intended to stop immigration from 00:37:26.940 --> 00:37:31.880 six predominantly Muslim countries and prevented refugees of the Syrian Civil War from 00:37:31.880 --> 00:37:34.500 coming to United States for 120 days. 00:37:35.200 --> 00:37:40.240 In 2018, Trump declared a national emergency when a caravan of migrants from Central America, 00:37:40.240 --> 00:37:44.340 many of whom were escaping violence, began moving towards the United States border. 00:37:44.340 --> 00:37:48.780 He justified this action by claiming that criminals and Middle Eastern terrorists 00:37:48.780 --> 00:37:51.680 were using the caravan to enter the United States. 00:37:52.720 --> 00:37:58.560 The German government legally persecuted the people of Europe for their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, 00:37:58.560 --> 00:38:00.460 and medical disabilities. 00:38:00.460 --> 00:38:06.600 I hope that the horrors that followed can be used as a lesson to not only listen, but respond to the cry for help 00:38:06.600 --> 00:38:11.480 of refugees and that the Holocaust reminds us that legality does not equate morality 00:38:11.480 --> 00:38:15.060 and that discrimination of any kind does not belong in immigration policy. 00:38:15.060 --> 00:38:24.700 [Pause] 00:38:24.700 --> 00:38:28.520 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] So, I think we've reached the end of the presentation portion. 00:38:28.520 --> 00:38:31.040 We're open for questions. 00:38:31.040 --> 00:38:36.060 If you're unfamiliar with Zoom and haven't used it before, if you open the participants window you should 00:38:36.060 --> 00:38:38.306 have an option to raise your hand. 00:38:38.306 --> 00:38:44.700 So if you want to ask your question verbally just go in and raise your hand there or 00:38:44.700 --> 00:38:51.060 you're welcome to submit a question through the chat and Kathryn is available to take your questions. 00:38:51.060 --> 00:39:21.020 [Pause] 00:39:21.020 --> 00:39:30.780 So, were there any questions? I'm not seeing any in the chat and I don't see any raised hands, I don't think. 00:39:30.780 --> 00:39:32.560 I do see some applause. 00:39:32.560 --> 00:39:37.140 [Pause] 00:39:37.140 --> 00:39:45.320 It looks like we have a question now from Philip Hernandez so I'm going to unmute you. 00:39:45.320 --> 00:39:47.240 Philip, if you want to ask your question. 00:39:47.240 --> 00:39:49.320 [Pause] 00:39:49.320 --> 00:39:54.460 [Phillip Hernandez] So I was trying to ask if you see any parallels with Syrian refugees nowadays 00:39:54.460 --> 00:39:58.900 between the Jewish refugees during the Holocaust and Syrian now. 00:39:59.760 --> 00:40:05.440 [Kathryn Walters] With their experience, in particular, I'm not as familiar. 00:40:05.440 --> 00:40:07.800 [Pause] 00:40:07.800 --> 00:40:16.500 I more use my thesis in particular in the exhibit that I created for that to look at the rhetoric against 00:40:16.500 --> 00:40:19.840 refugees or immigration policies. 00:40:19.840 --> 00:40:21.920 [Pause] 00:40:21.920 --> 00:40:27.040 But I do know that the American Holocaust Museum, at least their website, and I believe they also 00:40:27.040 --> 00:40:32.060 have an exhibit on the Syrian refugee crisis experience. 00:40:32.060 --> 00:40:40.840 [Pause] 00:40:40.840 --> 00:40:45.300 I see people asking questions in the chat so I'm gonna go over to those. 00:40:45.300 --> 00:40:49.380 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Yep. I will read those questions for you and you can respond. 00:40:49.380 --> 00:40:51.640 We have a question from Anna. 00:40:51.640 --> 00:40:58.040 Could you talk a little bit more about FDR's rationale for withholding support of the refugee bills? 00:40:58.040 --> 00:40:59.480 [Pause] 00:40:59.480 --> 00:41:06.380 [Kahtryn Walters] Yeah, so this was this was a very big topic of debate when I was doing my thesis. 00:41:07.300 --> 00:41:13.720 If you look at the historiography of how we look at America in the Holocaust, right after the war, 00:41:13.720 --> 00:41:21.540 in particular, we viewed it as FDR was focusing on the war effort and he was upholding American public beliefs 00:41:21.540 --> 00:41:29.620 at that time and a lot of the public during this time thought that, you know, we didn't want to get involved 00:41:29.620 --> 00:41:32.500 in Europe, especially before the outbreak of the war. 00:41:33.640 --> 00:41:36.640 We wanted to just be self-sufficient. 00:41:36.640 --> 00:41:42.260 We remembered the impact that World War I had on us and we did not want to get involved with that again. 00:41:42.260 --> 00:41:50.840 Also we were in our own bit of financial crisis after the stock market crash and helping outsiders wasn't seen 00:41:50.840 --> 00:41:54.940 as a priority when we had our own internal problems. 00:41:55.800 --> 00:42:02.860 And later on you'll see how it progressively became more questioning of "well was that right?" 00:42:02.860 --> 00:42:05.180 like "were those things mutually exclusive?" 00:42:06.020 --> 00:42:11.800 So for a long time people said that FDR was number one upholding what other Americans thought, that we 00:42:11.800 --> 00:42:17.380 shouldn't get involved, and he was just working within the political and economic balance he already had. 00:42:17.380 --> 00:42:22.900 Again, the United States had the 1924 Immigration Act already set in place, which didn't differentiate 00:42:22.900 --> 00:42:24.700 between refugees and immigrants. 00:42:24.700 --> 00:42:28.980 It said this is how many people from this country are allowed in. 00:42:28.980 --> 00:42:34.580 So, from his point of view and for many Americans point of view at that time, helping the Jewish people 00:42:34.580 --> 00:42:38.280 would not have benefited the United States. 00:42:38.280 --> 00:42:44.120 It would have been bad for us economically, or some people even took as extreme as 00:42:44.120 --> 00:42:47.220 this is a national security threat. We can't let outsiders in. 00:42:47.220 --> 00:42:51.500 [Pause] 00:42:51.500 --> 00:42:54.660 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Alright and we have a question from Kiera. 00:42:54.660 --> 00:43:01.020 Kathryn, you had a list of everything potential immigrants had to go through to apply to come here. 00:43:01.020 --> 00:43:08.540 Given the number of items, was there a way for refugees to be in the process and make it as far as the US 00:43:08.540 --> 00:43:10.100 only to be turned away? 00:43:10.100 --> 00:43:11.040 [Pause] 00:43:11.040 --> 00:43:12.320 So like if... 00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:14.220 [Pause] 00:43:14.220 --> 00:43:17.640 [Kathryn Walters] If they could like check off all those marks and get to the United States 00:43:17.640 --> 00:43:18.420 and still be turned away? 00:43:18.420 --> 00:43:19.440 Is that that the question? 00:43:19.440 --> 00:43:23.320 [Pause] 00:43:23.320 --> 00:43:24.920 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Yes. 00:43:24.920 --> 00:43:35.060 [Kathryn Walters] So, we could use the example of the St. Louis Ocean Liner. 00:43:35.060 --> 00:43:39.980 Their documents had supposedly expired by the time they got to the United States. 00:43:39.980 --> 00:43:42.760 [Pause] 00:43:42.760 --> 00:43:49.440 And I think also having the the economic supporter, one of the things that was on that list that you needed 00:43:49.440 --> 00:43:53.820 in order to leave Germany, was you had to have proof that when you came to America someone would 00:43:53.820 --> 00:44:00.160 financially support you, which was also a very big part of the Wagner Rogers Bill. 00:44:00.160 --> 00:44:05.740 As they were gathering letters from people who had agreed to take in these children, who would agree to 00:44:05.740 --> 00:44:09.100 pay for them, and you know like house them, and give them food. 00:44:09.100 --> 00:44:19.220 So, you know, not being that economic constraint. The economics of it was really impactful as well. 00:44:19.220 --> 00:44:23.620 [Pause] 00:44:23.620 --> 00:44:29.400 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] So Kiera clarified, have most of them checked off and be on the way here only 00:44:29.400 --> 00:44:32.940 to be sent back? And I feel like your answer addressed that as well. 00:44:32.940 --> 00:44:37.460 [Kathryn Walters] I think they would have had to have all of them checked off because not only was it hard 00:44:37.460 --> 00:44:41.920 to leave Germany but they were also being monitored when they left, as well. 00:44:41.920 --> 00:44:47.380 So if they didn't check all of these boxes they most likely wouldn't have been able to leave for the United States. 00:44:47.380 --> 00:44:48.640 [Pause] 00:44:48.640 --> 00:44:50.780 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] And we have a question from Jordan. 00:44:50.780 --> 00:44:57.120 You mentioned Secretary Long citing fear of communists hiding amongst refugees as part of his 00:44:57.120 --> 00:44:59.820 post-war justification of his actions. 00:44:59.820 --> 00:45:05.280 Is there any evidence to corroborate this as having been a real worry amongst to the FDR administration 00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:07.640 in the early to mid 40s? 00:45:07.640 --> 00:45:10.080 [Kathryn Walters] That's a really good question, actually. 00:45:10.080 --> 00:45:12.180 [Pause] 00:45:12.180 --> 00:45:16.680 I like that question but I don't have an answer for it, but I would like to look into that. 00:45:16.680 --> 00:45:23.460 I'm not sure why there was such a communist fear in the early 1940s. 00:45:23.460 --> 00:45:29.980 I mean obviously after the war it's more obvious why there's a fear of communists coming into the country. 00:45:29.980 --> 00:45:32.040 [Pause] 00:45:32.040 --> 00:45:38.840 I don't want to give the wrong answer here but I'm going to guess that the best way to know the answer to 00:45:38.840 --> 00:45:44.020 that question is to look into what countries had a lot of Communists during that time that 00:45:44.020 --> 00:45:45.880 were threats to America. 00:45:45.880 --> 00:45:49.560 But that's a good question. I like that question. I wish I had a better answer for you. 00:45:49.560 --> 00:45:53.480 [Pause] 00:45:53.480 --> 00:45:57.420 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] So if there are any other questions, feel free to raise your hand if you want to 00:45:57.420 --> 00:46:02.920 ask verbally, otherwise you can just type something in chat and I will read it aloud. 00:46:02.920 --> 00:46:10.540 [Pause] 00:46:10.540 --> 00:46:16.000 [Kathryn Walters] I have a question that I'd like to talk about with y'all. 00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:19.040 [Pause] 00:46:19.040 --> 00:46:22.200 I had written it down so give me one moment. 00:46:22.200 --> 00:46:25.940 [Pause] 00:46:25.940 --> 00:46:29.400 It was relating to the Wagner Rogers Bill. 00:46:29.400 --> 00:46:37.280 So, again, what happened with the Wagner Rogers Bill is that it was amended and it combined with 00:46:37.280 --> 00:46:46.200 Senator Reynolds' proposed bill from 1939 to stop immigration into United States entirely for five years 00:46:46.200 --> 00:46:52.940 and with the Wagner Rogers bill, which would have let these 20,000 Jewish children come into United States 00:46:52.940 --> 00:46:57.543 and at the end of that section I said "this shows that members of Congress were willing to find 00:46:57.543 --> 00:47:00.720 a middle ground between isolationism and humanitarianism. 00:47:00.720 --> 00:47:06.120 In some capacity, Congress recognized that many parts of the bill had the potential to be carried out successfully 00:47:06.120 --> 00:47:07.920 because the bill was not thrown outright. 00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:12.860 Additionally, their approval meant Congress recognized the emergence of a refugee crisis." 00:47:12.860 --> 00:47:17.680 So the question that I had for you all that I'd like to discuss is if you agree with that or not. 00:47:17.680 --> 00:47:23.880 That because they found the middle ground, does that mean that they accepted that there was a refugee crisis 00:47:23.880 --> 00:47:25.440 or what do you guys think of that? 00:47:25.440 --> 00:47:27.840 Do you think that that's the correct point of view? 00:47:27.840 --> 00:47:34.240 Because that was one of the questions that my thesis advisors particularly went over with me is: 00:47:34.240 --> 00:47:36.020 [Pause] 00:47:36.020 --> 00:47:40.400 does that amendment mean that they acknowledged that there was really a Jewish refugee crisis 00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:42.200 and that they then ignored it? 00:47:42.200 --> 00:47:48.520 [Pause] 00:47:48.520 --> 00:47:50.540 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] I'm typing it into a poll, 00:47:50.540 --> 00:47:53.780 [Pause] 00:47:53.780 --> 00:47:57.720 which is an anonymous way to reply, but you're also welcome to reply in the chat. 00:47:57.720 --> 00:48:18.260 [Pause] 00:48:18.260 --> 00:48:26.440 I'm not seeing the ability to launch that poll, so feel free to indicate in the chat if you want. 00:48:26.440 --> 00:48:36.080 Otherwise, I don't seem to be able to get the polling to work properly for one that wasn't prepared in advance. 00:48:36.080 --> 00:48:39.400 [Pause] 00:48:39.400 --> 00:48:41.340 There's a comment here from Hailey. 00:48:41.340 --> 00:48:44.540 I feel like there was acknowledgement of the refugee crisis. 00:48:44.540 --> 00:48:53.000 Example: the Evian conference and Wagner Rogers Bill, but I'm not sure I see no action as compromise. 00:48:53.000 --> 00:49:04.680 [Pause] 00:49:04.680 --> 00:49:10.380 Any other thoughts from attendees or did you have any more to add Kathryn? 00:49:10.380 --> 00:49:11.720 [Pause] 00:49:11.720 --> 00:49:22.060 [Kathryn Walters] No. That was just a big part of something I debated when I was working on my thesis. 00:49:22.060 --> 00:49:25.800 [Pause] 00:49:25.800 --> 00:49:27.740 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] There's a comment from Jordan. 00:49:27.740 --> 00:49:34.020 It is hard to give an answer here. I am curious how the bill made it through committee since the compromise, 00:49:34.020 --> 00:49:39.620 in my opinion, is clearly slanted in such a way to prevent immigration in larger numbers than it allowed. 00:49:39.620 --> 00:49:42.360 [Pause] 00:49:42.360 --> 00:49:44.180 And there's another comment from Kiera. 00:49:44.180 --> 00:49:52.060 I agree. I kind of feel like no action is a bit of typical politics, or the idea that parties could not agree. 00:49:52.060 --> 00:50:01.000 [Pause] 00:50:01.000 --> 00:50:04.980 Any other thoughts on that topic or other questions for Kathryn? 00:50:04.980 --> 00:50:09.020 [Pause] 00:50:09.020 --> 00:50:18.460 [Kathryn Walters] I like different points of views on this because this bill was really difficult, but it was also 00:50:18.460 --> 00:50:22.260 extremely interesting to me because when I was first thinking about, like, 00:50:22.260 --> 00:50:26.320 how could you say no to 20,000 children? 00:50:26.320 --> 00:50:35.560 But I read through so much of the hearings on this bill and if you look at it, their language, the people who are 00:50:35.560 --> 00:50:42.440 opposed to the bill don't particularly use the word children a lot or refugees, even. They use immigrants. 00:50:42.440 --> 00:50:50.560 And they just frequently go back to "we can't afford this and, you know, even if we take them now, these 00:50:50.560 --> 00:50:53.980 20,000 children will grow up to be adults who will take jobs from us." 00:50:54.500 --> 00:50:57.400 So that's why I like to get different points of views on this. 00:50:57.400 --> 00:50:59.800 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] There's a comment here from Anne. 00:50:59.800 --> 00:51:05.960 I think the price of five years with no immigration was so steep that it wasn't much of a compromise. 00:51:05.960 --> 00:51:08.620 And then there's a question from Haley. 00:51:08.620 --> 00:51:11.600 Was support for this bill divided between parties? 00:51:11.600 --> 00:51:15.000 [Pause] 00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:23.720 [Kathryn Walters] If it was, it wasn't extremely one way or another because I remember considering that as well. 00:51:23.720 --> 00:51:28.060 I was trying to see if like Democrats or Republicans supported this more, and I don't remember there 00:51:28.060 --> 00:51:30.660 being one that far outweighed the other. 00:51:30.660 --> 00:51:48.280 [Pause] 00:51:48.280 --> 00:51:50.640 I do have, um 00:51:50.640 --> 00:51:51.920 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] Oh, go ahead. 00:51:51.920 --> 00:51:58.720 [Kathryn Walters] I do have one other thing that if people are more interested in especially America's decision 00:51:58.720 --> 00:52:09.740 to get involved with not only the Jewish refugee crisis, but also the Holocaust, there was a book that I read. 00:52:09.740 --> 00:52:15.980 It's by Christopher Nichols it's called "Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age" and 00:52:15.980 --> 00:52:21.660 he's talking about isolationism and interventionism during this time because, again, this was something that 00:52:21.660 --> 00:52:23.200 I had to make myself more familiar with. 00:52:23.200 --> 00:52:29.280 I just assumed that these things were incredibly similar that if you're isolationist or you were a 00:52:29.280 --> 00:52:34.220 non-interventionist, that those are the same thing: that you didn't want to get involved in Europe at all. 00:52:34.220 --> 00:52:39.680 And if you would like to learn more about that, I really recommend reading this book because he argues that 00:52:39.680 --> 00:52:46.120 isolationism/interventionism we're not usually exclusive as typically assumed when we talk about World War II. 00:52:46.120 --> 00:52:51.520 For example isolationism was not a completely neutralist policy, it was a question of American priorities. 00:52:51.520 --> 00:53:01.860 So, he's looking at...because isolation is also is usually, when we think of that word, we also think we'd go to 00:53:01.860 --> 00:53:04.040 "oh well they're really xenophobic as well." 00:53:04.040 --> 00:53:07.000 Or, like, that's the extreme people take it up to. 00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:11.020 But in that book he's looking at, well, it shouldn't be so black and white with that. 00:53:11.020 --> 00:53:17.500 It's a question of American priorities, so they could have seen that helping from a military point of view, 00:53:17.500 --> 00:53:23.500 and that would be interventionism, that was beneficial, but that helping refugees was not beneficial to 00:53:23.500 --> 00:53:27.040 American economy, for example. 00:53:27.040 --> 00:53:31.160 So again that book is called "Promise and Peril." 00:53:31.160 --> 00:53:36.220 It's by Christopher Nichols and it just it takes a bigger look at interventionism during that time, 00:53:36.220 --> 00:53:37.460 if you're interested in that. 00:53:37.460 --> 00:53:39.680 [Pause] 00:53:39.680 --> 00:53:42.520 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] There is a question in here from Jordan. 00:53:42.520 --> 00:53:50.860 It seems so strange for the members of Congress to be obsessing over the cost of immigration while instituting 00:53:50.860 --> 00:53:54.880 New Deal politics... policies. Excuse me. 00:53:54.880 --> 00:53:59.740 It seems so strange for the members of Congress to be obsessing over the cost of immigration while 00:53:59.740 --> 00:54:06.440 instituting New Deal policies and overseeing the biggest expansion of socialist policy in American history. 00:54:06.440 --> 00:54:12.680 How are such projects getting approved when Congress seems to turn around and say that they cannot afford 00:54:12.680 --> 00:54:16.080 to accept a relative handful of working people? 00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:21.740 [Kathryn Walters] Again, this is relating to what's in America's best interest at that time. 00:54:21.740 --> 00:54:27.560 So the New Deal policies were created to help Americans already in America and to help them 00:54:27.560 --> 00:54:29.980 come back from that economic crisis. 00:54:29.980 --> 00:54:37.960 And, from many people's point of views, bringing in these outsiders would be competition to what 00:54:37.960 --> 00:54:40.040 the New Deal policies are trying to create. 00:54:40.040 --> 00:54:47.240 [Pause] 00:54:47.240 --> 00:54:52.960 [Anthony Wright de Hernandez] I've included in chat a link to the entry for "Promise and Peril" by 00:54:52.960 --> 00:54:57.780 Christopher Nichols on the WorldCat library search. 00:54:57.780 --> 00:55:05.200 WorldCat should allow you to find a copy in a library located nearby to you if you want to find that book. 00:55:05.200 --> 00:55:14.380 [Pause] 00:55:14.380 --> 00:55:16.900 Any other comments or questions? 00:55:16.900 --> 00:55:25.200 [Pause] 00:55:25.200 --> 00:55:30.800 Seeing none, I will throw up a link here for a survey about this session. 00:55:30.800 --> 00:55:35.620 I will also throw that link into the chat so that you can access it. 00:55:35.620 --> 00:55:41.640 It is a relatively short survey, about five or six questions and most of them are multiple-choice. 00:55:41.640 --> 00:55:43.400 We'd really appreciate your feedback. 00:55:43.400 --> 00:55:50.440 This is the first time that we've done a fully Zoom online presentation like this, 00:55:50.440 --> 00:55:52.320 so I'd love to hear what you think of it. 00:55:52.320 --> 00:55:56.120 Or, you can also access the survey using the QR code on the screen. 00:55:56.940 --> 00:55:59.360 So I'd like to thank everyone for coming. 00:55:59.360 --> 00:56:07.220 I'd really like to thank Kathryn for being willing to adapt this talk into an online format and for putting in the 00:56:07.220 --> 00:56:14.800 effort to do polling as a part of it to make it a little more interactive in its online format. 00:56:14.800 --> 00:56:21.320 Kathryn is located out in Colorado and joined us from there, since she was not able to physically travel here 00:56:21.320 --> 00:56:25.680 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 00:56:26.360 --> 00:56:34.540 So, we do have a couple of additional programs that will be coming up that are also in this online format. 00:56:34.540 --> 00:56:35.740 You're welcome to join. 00:56:35.740 --> 00:56:41.500 Some of them are in the middle of the day, one of them is in the evening again, but you can find them at 00:56:41.500 --> 00:56:54.580 tiny.cc/VTaath and I just threw that link into the chat so information about that is there. 00:56:54.580 --> 00:56:59.840 And yeah I think we'll call that a presentation. 00:56:59.840 --> 00:57:01.320 Thank you everyone for coming. 00:57:01.326 --> 00:57:05.230 [Kathryn Walters] Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it. Thank you