Henry Morgenthau Jr. (/ˈmɔːrɡənθɔː/; May 11, 1891 – February 6, 1967) was the United States Secretary of the Treasury during most of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

After 1937, while still in charge of the Treasury, he played the central role in financing United States participation in World War II.

[1] He also played an increasingly major role in shaping foreign policy, especially with respect to Lend-Lease, support for China, helping Jewish refugees, and proposing (in the "Morgenthau Plan") measures to deindustrialize Germany.

I stayed after Jones left and had a good half hour talk in which most of the time Louis Howe was present.

[7]In 1934, when William H. Woodin resigned because of poor health, Roosevelt appointed Morgenthau Secretary of the Treasury; even conservatives approved.

Investigations of official corruption caused the fall of political boss Thomas "Big Tom" Pendergast of Kansas City.

A Mafia-related shootout and massive official corruption led to successful investigations against Pendergast and the local Mafia head Charles Carrollo.

Morgenthau believed in balanced budgets, stable currency, reduction of the national debt, and the need for more private investment.

The Wagner Act regarding labor unions met Morgenthau's requirement, because it strengthened the party's political base and involved no new spending.

Morgenthau and his staff persisted in bypassing State and ultimately confronting Roosevelt in January 1944 with the Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews.

Due to incessant highly visible rescue activism by the Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson) led Bergson Group and pressure by Morgenthau and some of his staff, President Roosevelt finally acted and created the United States War Refugee Board (WRB) in January 1944.

[20] Hurwitz (1991) argues that in late 1943, the Treasury Department drafted a report calling for the creation of a special rescue agency for European Jewry.

On January 16, 1944, Morgenthau presented Roosevelt with the Treasury report, and the president agreed to create the War Refugee Board, the first major attempt of the United States to deal with the annihilation of European Jews.

Blum argues that by mid-1944, the War Refugee Board: Had begun to fulfill Morgenthau's high expectations.

His experience in getting the board established and in helping to oversee its operations constituted his signal wartime success to that date in nurturing humanitarian purpose in American foreign-policy.

Therefore, the original Morgenthau plan had to be dropped, Weinberg argues, because it was "too soft on the Germans, not too hard as some still imagine".

[25] The gist of the signed memorandum was "This programme for eliminating the war-making industries in the Ruhr and the Saar is looking forward to converting Germany into a country primarily agricultural and pastoral in its character."

Colonel John Boettiger, who worked in the United States Department of War, explained to Morgenthau how the American troops had had to fight for five weeks against fierce German resistance to capture Aachen and complained to him that the Morgenthau Plan was "worth thirty divisions to the Germans".

[35] Roosevelt had granted permission for the book the evening before his death, when dining with Morgenthau at Warm Springs.

Occupation Zone, approved the distribution of 1,000 free copies of the book to American military officials in occupied Germany.

[37] Following his resignation in 1945, Morgenthau, along with other prominent liberals such as Eleanor Roosevelt, called for a "harsh peace" for Germany.

[38] Morgenthau was first appointed by the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as temporary President of the Bretton Woods Conference, which established the Bretton Woods system, the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank).

During the inaugural plenary session on July 1, 1944, the head of the Mexican Delegation, Eduardo Suarez, nominated him as Permanent President of the Conference.

The 378-foot (115 m) United States Coast Guard Hamilton-class cutter USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC-722) was named in his honor.

And despite his nearly life-long political career, Morgenthau insisted on identifying himself, and listing his occupation on his passport and tax forms, as a "farmer.

Franklin Roosevelt, Morgenthau became a member of Tri-Po-Bed Grotto in Poughkeespie, NY, an appendant body of Freemasonry.