"...May it serve as a constant reminder of our past so that Americans in the future will never again be denied their constitutional rights and may the remembrance of that experience serve to advance the evolution of the human spirit..."

Plaque at the Poston Relocation Center

We have spent a couple of weeks focusing our study of the United States during World War II on the impact this conflict had on two ethnic groups: Japanese-Americans and the Jews of Europe and the U.S.. Given what we have studied and your knowledge of current events, how has our response to people in crisis around the world changed over the past 50 years? Was or is there a need for change in our immigration policy? Do our practices with regard to international refugees continue to spread the word?

Jewish Refugees during the Holocaust:

ADL site: US indifference
http://www.adl.org/Braun/vol10_no1.html

Institute of the World Jewish Congress: dispatch on international indifference
http://www.wjc.org.il/dis30.htm

Resisters, Rescuers and Bystanders: International Responses to the Holocaust
http://remember.org/guide/wit.root.wit.res.html

                    See below for information on the Wagner-Rogers Bill, 1939

U.S. Government Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS):
http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/index.htm

                    CDR Background Papers on Refugees and Asylum Seekers – Kosovo ( UNHCR)
                    http://www.unhcr.ch/refworld/country/cdr/cdrkos.htm

                    Time June 28, 1999 - Kosovo Crisis: The Awful Truth, Crimes of War

CDR Background Papers on Refugees and Asylum Seekers – Rwanda (UNHCR)
http://www.unhcr.ch/refworld/country/cdr/cdrrwa.htm

You are welcome to locate your own sources of information, as well. You must provide a bibliography with this paper. Any news articles you collect from various news services are also acceptable sources of information. This project is not intended to be a major research paper, rather an opportunity to inform ourselves about some current events in order to make comparisons between our past and current policies, attitudes and behavior.

The Failure of the Wagner-Rogers Bill

Perhaps the most poignant and revealing example of the American response is the Wagner-Rogers Bill. Prior to 1939, several nations had made modest efforts to rescue German-Jewish children; Holland admitted 1,700 young Jews, and Britain, 9,000 Jews. Inspired by those examples, a group of clergy persuaded Congressman Robert Wagner, author of the famous pro-labor Wagner Act, to co-sponsor legislation that would admit 20,000 Jewish children over two years. Under the act, which was introduced in February 1939, the number of children admitted would not be subtracted from the established quotas; otherwise, the bill would save Jewish children at the expense of other Jews. The children would be subsidized by Jewish agencies and they would not even be permanent citizens, but would return to their parents after the war

It is important to remember some of the events taking place at about the time the Wagner-Rogers Bill was introduced. A few months before, on November 9, the Nazis had conducted their "night of broken glass" in which riots left about one hundred Jewish people dead and many of their stores, homes and synagogues destroyed. It also marked the beginning of deportations to the concentration camps. In January, Hitler publicly warned the impending annihilation of the Jewish race of Europe. It was becoming clear to Jewish people living in Germany and to many concerned Americans that the best hope for Jews, particularly the children, was to get them out of Germany.

The United States had been trying to survive a decade of severe depression and many desperate people searched for scapegoats. Millions of Americans listened to the anti-Semitic speeches of Father Charles Coughlin who called the "might of broken glass" a defense mechanism against the Jewish Communist conspiracy. A public opinion poll was taken in April of 1939 – at the very same time that Congress was considering the Wagner-Rogers Bill. It revealed that 42.3 percent of the American people believed that anti-Semitism was the result of unfavorable Jewish traits. In another poll that same year, most people agreed that among all the immigrant groups, Jews and Italians were the worst citizens.

A number of religious and civic organizations spoke out in support of the bill. The prominent Quaker, Clarence Pickett, warned that if the United States did not respond, it would be forsaking its mission to the world; "The issue is whether the American people have lost their ability to respond to such tragic situations, If it turns out that we have lost that ability, it will mean that much of the soul has gone out of America." A bishop from Chicago said, "In providing [these children] a sanctuary where they can grow up in the ways of peace and walk the paths of righteousness, we will help not only them but ourselves…we still demonstrate to the world our own devotion to the sanctity of human life."

Francis Kinicutt, president of the Allied Patriotic Societies, led a force of thirty organizations to oppose the bill. He claimed that the bill was for Jews and sponsored by Jews. "The bill," he suggested, "if passed, will be a precedent … in response to the pressure of foreign nationalistic or racial groups, rather than in accordance with the needs and desires of the American people." Other opponents stressed that the Jews were not the only victims of persecution. For example, "if this bill passes, there is no reason why we should not also bring in twenty thousand Chinese children. Certainly they are being persecuted too." Several congressmen picked up on this theme and asked supporters of the bill whether they would agree to admit Polish, Russian, or French children. When one supporter replied that the need was greatest for Jewish children, a congressman suggested that there was a Jewish conspiracy behind the bill. One opponent revealed to a friend one of his real fears which was that "…twenty thousand children would soon grow into twenty thousand ugly adults."

Because of the pressure by numerous lobbying groups and because of their awareness of anti-Semitism in America, the congressional committee dealt a deathblow to the bill. It was agreed that the 20,000 children would only be admitted as part of the regular immigration quota, not in addition to that quota. That meant that Jewish children would be admitted at the expense of Jewish adults.

The only chance for saving the bill rested with the President and the executive agencies, but as one official wrote, "There is a lot of sentiment about [these children] but the enthusiasm is liable to wane at the end of a long period." Even though Eleanor Roosevelt pushed the President to support the bill, he still responded with one note of appeal, " File – no action, FDR." The Secretary of State told the congressional committee that the bill would raise difficult administrative problems.

The bill was finally reported out to the full Congress on July 1, 1939, but the chief sponsor could no longer support his own bill because of all the changes. He said, "The proposed changes would in effect convert the measure from a humane proposal to help children who are in a cute distress to a proposal with needlessly cruel consequences for adults in Germany…." In July, the sponsor of the bill to rescue 20,000 Jewish children from persecution withdrew his bill.