Readers React: One lesson from the Holocaust: The next person needing refuge could be you

To the editor: Undoubtedly millions of Americans were aware of the persecution of German Jews in the 1930s. The U.S. government turned a blind eye not only to news reports, but also to the pleas of prominent individuals. (“Bigotry stopped Americans from intervening before the Holocaust. Not much has changed,” Opinion, April 29)

Jews have been persecuted for many thousands of years, and yes, there were always good people who helped, albeit too few. I know of what I speak.

I was 6 years old in Vienna prior to World War II when my family tried to leave. I was too young to know what was happening, but I knew it was bad. U.S. law required immigrants to be sponsored, so after we qualified under the quota system, one good American saved my family.

Adolf Hitler attempted to eliminate what he called the “Jewish race.” He also killed Roma, homosexuals and political opponents. Every American should take care, for the next person to be terrorized could be you.

Marianne Bobick, Long Beach

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To the editor: Historian James Grossman dares us to confront the comparisons of pre-World War II bigotry and hate in the United States with today’s pervasive hatemongers; to compare the anti-Semitism of then with the anti-immigrant hate of today.

His message is to educate, learn and reform. Hopefully we can, for now our target is not a polled anonymous 71% of the population that opposed providing refuge for persecuted Jews; our target today is one man, the president, who has carried the fringe from the shadows of Charlottesville to the mainstream.

Grossman calls upon us to learn from our experience; hopefully, we can.

Louis A. Lipofsky, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: Grossman cites a statement made in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany was “not a [U.S.] governmental affair.”

He says that remark may “come across as cold-hearted in retrospect, but Roosevelt understood his fellow Americans; they would not march to war — or even expend substantial public resources — to save Jews.”

The annual immigration quota from Germany in those years was 25,957. But thanks to the onerous extra requirements imposed by the Roosevelt administration on refugees applying for visas to the United States, the actual number of Jews admitted from Germany that year was just 1,375. The quota was left 95% unfilled.

In other words, FDR could have saved more than 24,000 Jews from Hitler in 1933 alone, simply by quietly permitting the existing quota to be fully utilized. That would not have required “expending substantial public resources” or “marching to war.”

Rafael Medoff, Washington

The writer is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

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