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The world knew about the persecution of the Jews and the concentration camps.

Actually, Americans heard very little stories about the concentration camps until after the war was over. It wasn't a major news item here before or during the war.

People knew of the concentration camps, but did not grasp how horrific they really were. Too many people could rationalize them as being nothing more than makeshift prisons.

The Nazis had established concentration camps for political prisoners as early as 1933, but the death camps we think of when refering to concentration camps weren't really established until after the start of the war.

The media may have closed its eyes, but our government knew.

Soon after the Second World War ended, Henry Morgenthau, Jr. would recall what he called "those terrible eighteen months" in Washington, when "the Nazis were planning to exterminate all the Jews of Europe." He went on to write, "officials dodged their grim responsibility, procrastinated when concrete rescue schemes were placed before them, and even suppressed information about atrocities." The terrible 18 months Morgenthau was referring to was the period between the summer of 1942, when the State Department first heard of Hitler's plan to murder Europe's Jews, and January of 1944, when President Roosevelt set up the War Refugee Board, an institution that ultimately saved as many as 200,000 Jewish lives. Although, as secretary of the treasury, Morgenthau had few official opportunities to deal with the rescue efforts, a series of events starting in mid-1943 meant that Morgenthau and his staff at the Treasury played a key role in Roosevelt's decision to set up an agency independent of the State Department that would be charged with rescuing Europe's Jews.

Morgenthau was one of the few Jews surrounding the President, and was perhaps the most concerned by the plight of Germany's Jews. At the end of 1938, realizing that Congress was becoming increasingly unyielding on the number of immigrants who could enter the country, he went to the President with a different suggestion. He proposed that the United States acquire British and French Guiana and in return cancel whatever Britain and France still owed the United States on loans from World War I. According to Morgenthau's diary, Roosevelt was not impressed. "It's no good," the President reportedly said. "It would take the Jews five to 50 years to overcome the fever."

Nonetheless Morgenthau continued to bring news of rescue plans to the President's attention. On February 13, 1943, a "New York Times" article offered the Jews of Rumania some hope. It reported that the Rumanian government was prepared to ship the 70,000 Rumanian Jews in Transnistria to a safe haven chosen by the allies. In return, the Rumanians wanted approximately $130 per refugee to cover expenses. Morgenthau immediately pointed the story out to the President, who suggested that Morgenthau ask the State Department to look into the matter. Nothing ever came of the plan.

Later in the year, Morgenthau became much more involved in the rescue issue. The sequence of events began in April of 1943, when Gerhart Riegner, the representative of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva, sent a message to the U.S. with yet another rescue proposal. According to Riegner, if American Jewish organizations made funds available, supplies could be sent to the Jews of Transnistria. Additionally, Jewish children in the region could be moved to Palestine. And in France funds were needed to support hidden Jewish children and to finance escapes of Jews to Spain.

It was the Treasury Department's responsibility to issue the licenses required to send funds overseas. The State Department, however, didn't inform Morgenthau's staffers about Riegner's plan until late June. Once aware of what was involved, the Treasury Department rapidly approved the license. But because of further State Department delays and the procrastination of the U.S. delegation in Bern, the license was not transmitted to Riegner until late December. This was eight months after Riegner had first proposed his plan. In struggling against State Department obstructionism, the Treasury Department discovered that the State Department had at one point actually instructed the U.S. delegation in Bern to block more information about the Holocaust from reaching the U.S. Treasury Department, and staffers were so incensed by this callous indifference, they presented Morgenthau with a searing, 18-page critique of the Administration's failure to help the Jews of Europe. They entitled it "Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews." Morgenthau was also aware of political pressure mounting on Capitol Hill for an independent rescue agency. Cognizant of the possible political scandal if Roosevelt didn't seize the initiative, he urged FDR to set up an organization to deal with the refugee crisis. The President responded immediately, issuing an executive order on January 22, 1944 that established the War Refugee Board (WRB).