United States and the Holocaust

The United States has been criticized for taking insufficient action in response to the Jewish refugee crisis in the 1930s and the Holocaust during World War II.

[1] In July 1938, the United States initiated the Évian Conference to address the refugee crisis with the nations of Europe and the Americas, but no consensus could be reached between the countries.

[4] This fact has been attributed to economic concerns which resulted from the Great Depression and an antisemitic prejudice which was held by a sizable portion of the population.

The government had been seeking solutions to increase the development of Alaska, and its status as a territory would allow the refugees to circumvent immigration quotas.

[9] In 1939, German Jewish citizens boarded the passenger ship St. Louis and traveled to Cuba in an attempt to escape Nazi persecution.

[11] The prevalence of antisemitism in German society was widely known by the 1930s,[12] but citizens of the United States were unaware that the Holocaust was taking place for the first year.

[17][18] American rescue efforts in the final year of World War II are credited as saving tens of thousands of lives.

[20] After it was reported that over two million Jews had been killed in Europe, We Will Never Die was written by Ben Hecht and performed in Madison Square Garden to spread awareness of the Holocaust.

[26] As the end of World War II in Europe approached, the Allied powers debated the best response to the crimes of the Nazi Party's leadership.

[citation needed] The Nuremberg trials were held in 1945 and 1946 to this end, and Supreme Court justice Robert H. Jackson was selected as the chief prosecutor representing the United States.

[27] In the immediate aftermath of World War II, reports and photographs of the Holocaust served to emphasize the evil of the Nazis in the American consciousness.

[30] The Holocaust has persisted in the collective memory of the American people into the 21st century, and it has also been cited as a rare example of a historical event that has become more prominent in society as time passes.