Op-Ed: "Complicit": FDR's Refusal to Save the Jews on the MS St. Louis

af_vet_1981: "In post 34 you wrote 'Just so we're clear about this: there were no Nazi death camps in 1939, none.' "

Beginning at the end of 1941 Nazis set up six mass killing centers in Poland -- Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Chelmno & Majdanek -- in which about half of all murdered Jews died.
The rest died in other camps -- so called "work camps" -- in Einsatzgruppen shootings and from starvation & disease in restricted ghettos.

None of this was going on before September 1939.
Yes, during the 1930s Jews were harassed, restricted & persecuted, but they were not being mass-murdered in the way that only began after two years of European war.

To which I've never answered "yes", not once, though you have repeatedly mis-stated my answers as meaning, "yes".

I have mistated nothing. I have simply interpreted your responses as you seek to justify Roosevelt at the expense of the Jews, which I find particularly shameful.

at some point the Ninth Commandment comes into play here. As a biblical scholar, you might want to refresh your memory on that one.

Indeed, as does the second greatest commandment and the parable of the Sheep and the Goats.

The Jews were refugees. Roosevelt did poorly to deny them refuge in the US. The Jews were forced to return to Europe where many of them died in the Holocaust. Those that England finally took (288 out of 908) survived. 620 Jews were forced to return to mainland Europe but the Netherlands, Belgium, and France took them rather than force them to return to Germany. Roosevelt took none. That month Germany invaded Poland. The Jewish refugees were trapped, although 87 managed to get out of Western Europe before it was invaded in 1940. Of the remaining Jews about half survived and half perished. Roosevelt had the choice to save them and turned his back on them. Another ship with Jewish refugees with 72 passengers was later allowed to find temporary refuge in the US Panama Canal Zone, and the US later admitted most of them.

Yes, during the 1930s Jews were harassed, restricted & persecuted, but they were not being mass-murdered in the way that only began after two years of European war.

This is the immediate context for your not being mass-murdered world for the the Jewish refugees on the St. Louis and occurred just previously in November 1938. The Jewish refugees were able to arrange for passage and fled in May 1939.

These photographs show the German annexation of the Sudetenland. In Germany, open antisemitism became increasingly accepted, climaxing in the "Night of Broken Glass" (Kristallnacht) on November 9, 1938. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels initiated this free-for-all against the Jews, during which nearly 1,000 synagogues were set on fire and 76 were destroyed. More than 7,000 Jewish businesses and homes were looted, about one hundred Jews were killed and as many as 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps to be tormented, many for months. Within days, the Nazis forced the Jews to transfer their businesses to Aryan hands and expelled all Jewish pupils from public schools. With brazen arrogance, the Nazis further persecuted the Jews by forcing them to pay for the damages of Kristallnacht

af_vet_1981: "I have mistated nothing.
I have simply interpreted your responses as you seek to justify Roosevelt at the expense of the Jews, which I find particularly shameful."

But the shame is all yours, FRiend, for violating the Ninth Commandment in falsely "interpreting" my words and falsely accusing President Roosevelt.
You should be ashamed of yourself, and you need to stop doing it.

To help you with that, I'll cite more details which come from the first book recommended above (post #52):

At the time of the St. Louis incident, the President was recovering from illness and did not participate in negotiations.
However, some of his staff, especially Jews like Henry Morgenthau, did.
Before the St. Louis incident -- as personally negotiated by President Roosevelt and the Cuban leader Batista -- there was a steady stream of ships with Jewish passengers leaving German ports for Havana.
By the summer of 1939, the total number of Jewish refugees in Cuba was around 6,000.
That means, seven or more shiploads up to the size of the St. Louis had arrived and off-loaded before the St. Louis incident in May 1939.
After the St. Louis incident, another 2,000 Jewish refugees (two or three more shiploads) from Germany landed and were admitted to Cuba, thanks to President Roosevelt's deal with Batista.
So, the question is: what happened to make the St. Louis different from all those other refugee ships?
The answer is: the crooks who ran Cuba saw an opportunity to feather their nests, and, in effect, raised the price of admission.
Negotiators, including Jewish members of President Roosevelt's staff, eventually arrived at a new price and some negotiators were willing to pay it.
But the US chief negotiator, a Jew, was a non-government actor, Lawrence Berenson, president of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce in the United States.
He was not willing to pay the half million additional dollars Cuba now demanded.
Barenson also rejected somewhat lower cost offers of asylum from the Dominican Republic and from Honduras.
The US State Department also ruled out possible refuge in the Virgin Islands.
As a result, the St. Louis and two smaller ships returned to Europe.
US Coast Guard cutters sent to escort the St. Louis while near American waters were sent by US Secretary of Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, solely out of concern for the passengers' welfare.
"As the St.Louis and two smaller refugee ships steamed back across the Atlantic, the Joint Distribution Committee and the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees persuaded Belgium to agree to take in the passengers as a special case.
Britain, France and the Netherlands followed; each took a share.
Through Robert Pell, its representative with the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, the State Department facilitated the European solution, which satisfied Jewish leaders and sympathetic officials in the Roosevelt administration".
"Many of these homeless Jews found refuge in Western Europe preferable to Latin American alternatives to Cuba.
As the St. Louis steamed back across the Atlantic, the passengers cabled Morris C. Troper, European head of the [Jewish] Joint Distribution Committee saying, 'Our gratitude is as immense as the ocean on which we are now floating.'
"After the settlement Berenson wrote, 'I am weary and tired, but am coming to rapidly.
Thank God those sad refugees have landed in safe places.' "
In other words, the Jews who negotiated the St. Louis deal believed they had done a good job, under the circumstances.
The number of St. Louis passengers who eventually died in the Holocaust is now estimated at 227 out of 937 passengers, or 24%, a tragedy of epic proportions, but certainly not knowable to the Jews who negotiated the fate of those MS St. Louis passengers in June, 1939.
Roosevelt deserves credit for the 8,000 Jews who did land in Cuba, thanks to FDR's personal negotiations with Cuba's Batista.
His administration, and the Jewish negotiators for him also deserve credit for the 683 St. Louis passengers who survived the Holocaust, in Europe.
100% of the sole, complete & absolute moral responsibility for the Holocaust deaths of 227 St. Louis passengers (27%) belongs to one man, and his henchmen: Adolf Hitler.

And there is much more to this story, but at least now, good FRiend, you know the basic truth of this matter.
So open your Bible and read it, and you will learn that the Truth will set you free from your lies, your hatred and false accusations against people who don't deserve such abuse.

Have a great day!

So open your Bible and read it, and you will learn that the Truth will set you free from your lies, your hatred and false accusations against people who don't deserve such abuse.

Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Leviticus, Catholic chapter nineteen, Protestant verses seventeen to eighteen,
Matthew, Catholic chapter twenty five, Protestant verses thirty one to forty six,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

Just so we're clear on this, Roosevelt is justly criticized for any number of failures, including the following:

His New Deal Big Government programs were counterproductive, lengthening the Great Depression in the United States years beyond the time of recovery in every other industrialized nation.
His internment of Japanese-American civilians during WWII was later ruled so unjust the government was forced to pay restitution to the survivors.
Like Kennedy and Clinton, FDR was unfaithful to his wife, both before and after coming down with polio.

But on the matter of immigration, despite strong opposition, FDR did more than the law required, or allowed.
Given that isolationist opposition FDR went as far as he thought he could go, without jeopardizing his efforts to prepare the US for war -- a war which the overwhelming majority of Americans did not want to join.

In addition to personal negotiations which allowed nearly 8,000 German Jews to immigrate to Cuba, FDR also negotiated 5,000 for Paraguay, and influenced Brazil (10,000) and Bolivia (20,000) to accept significant numbers -- 40,000 in total, which matches the numbers Britain accepted into Palestine.

At the time, after Krystallnacht, when Britain agreed to take in 10,000 Jewish orphans, a bill was also introduced to Congress allowing 20,000 children into the United States.
The bill was supported by FDR, his wife Eleanor, former Republican President Hoover and Republican nominee for president Alf Landon.
But it was opposed by isolationists / conservatives, both Democrat and Republicans, including Ohio Senator Robert Taft, whose judgment was: "the United States has already done enough".

Yes, FDR is criticized for not supporting that bill strongly enough, but the fact is, he needed those Democrat & Republican conservatives to support his preparations for war, and so was reluctant to p*ss them off.

The bill to provide refuge for 20,000 Jewish children was gutted & defeated.

Bottom line: FDR is justly rebuked for many things, but his actions regarding Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany are not among them.
Adolf Hitler is to blame for the Holocaust, not Franklin Roosevelt.

Have a nice day!

Just so we're clear on this, Roosevelt is justly criticized for any number of failures, including the following:
His New Deal Big Government programs were counterproductive, lengthening the Great Depression in the United States years beyond the time of recovery in every other industrialized nation.
His internment of Japanese-American civilians during WWII was later ruled so unjust the government was forced to pay restitution to the survivors.
Like Kennedy and Clinton, FDR was unfaithful to his wife, both before and after coming down with polio. But on the matter of immigration, despite strong opposition, FDR did more than the law required, or allowed.
Given that isolationist opposition FDR went as far as he thought he could go, without jeopardizing his efforts to prepare the US for war -- a war which the overwhelming majority of Americans did not want to join.

In addition to personal negotiations which allowed nearly 8,000 German Jews to immigrate to Cuba, FDR also negotiated 5,000 for Paraguay, and influenced Brazil (10,000) and Bolivia (20,000) to accept significant numbers -- 40,000 in total, which matches the numbers Britain accepted into Palestine.

At the time, after Krystallnacht, when Britain agreed to take in 10,000 Jewish orphans, a bill was also introduced to Congress allowing 20,000 children into the United States.
The bill was supported by FDR, his wife Eleanor, former Republican President Hoover and Republican nominee for president Alf Landon.
But it was opposed by isolationists / conservatives, both Democrat and Republicans, including Ohio Senator Robert Taft, whose judgment was: "the United States has already done enough".

Yes, FDR is criticized for not supporting that bill strongly enough, but the fact is, he needed those Democrat & Republican conservatives to support his preparations for war, and so was reluctant to p*ss them off.

The bill to provide refuge for 20,000 Jewish children was gutted & defeated.

Bottom line: FDR is justly rebuked for many things, but his actions regarding Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany are not among them.

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Luke, Catholic chapter ten, Protestant verses ten to thirty seven
, Luke, Catholic chapter twelve, Protestant verses thirty five to forty eight
, Matthew, Catholic chapter twenty five, Protestant verses thirty one to forty five
, as authorized, but not authored, by King James

Neither you nor I will ever know in this life how Christ judges President Roosevelt for eternity.
But we do know that anybody can raise their expectations bar so high that no human being could reach it.
As Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:23:

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

If your standard is perfection, then neither Roosevelt nor anybody else could ever achieve it.
If you look back with perfect 20-20 hindsight on those days, then FDR's actions were clearly inadequate for the coming Holocaust.
But Jewish leaders of that time appreciated what the president did for them, and said so publically.
Very few indicated disappointment that he had not done more.

Thankfully, neither you nor I will judge Roosevelt in eternity, only in finite history, and only on the basis of what he might have done under the circumstances.
We should also note that there was no other American leader -- none -- of that time who could have, or would have done better.
We elect human beings, not gods, to be our leaders, so we don't expect perfection from them, only in all good faith, their best efforts and talents.

Finally, I "get" that you're not here to make a historical case, only to preach.
So God bless you, and have a nice day!

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Psalms, Catholic chapter one hundred forty six, Protestant verses three to four,
First John, Catholic chapter two, Protestant verse three to six,
James, Catholic chapter two, Protestant verses eight to seventeen,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

Amen