FDR and the Holocaust (The World of the Roosevelts)

The contributors to this volume take a hard look at Roosevelt's reaction to the Holocaust. Front Matter....Pages i-x Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Transcript of the Summary of the Conference on “Policies and Responses of the American Government toward the Holocaust,” 11–12 November 1993....Pages 3-28 The Burden of Being Human: An Essay on Selected Scholarship of the Holocaust....Pages 29-39 Roosevelt as Foreign Policy Leader....Pages 41-50 “Courage First and Intelligence Second”: The American Jewish Secular Elite, Roosevelt, and the Failure to Rescue....Pages 51-87 Was There Communal Failure? Some Thoughts on the American Jewish Response to the Holocaust....Pages 89-108 Roosevelt and the Holocaust....Pages 109-127 The Failure to Provide a Safe Haven for European Jewry....Pages 129-143 Review of David Wyman’s The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945....Pages 145-149 Bystanders to the Holocaust (Review of Monty Penkower’s The Jews Were Expendable: Free World Diplomacy and the Holocaust and David Wyman’s The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945)....Pages 151-158 Did FDR Betray the Jews? Or Did He Do More Than Anyone Else to Save Them?....Pages 159-166 Front Matter....Pages 167-173 Allied Knowledge of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943–1944....Pages 175-182 The Bombing of Auschwitz Reexamined....Pages 183-217 The Bombing of Auschwitz Revisited: A Critical Analysis....Pages 219-272 Back Matter....Pages 273-278 What did Franklin Delano Roosevelt know about the Holocaust and what did he do to try to prevent it? This question has proven to be one of the thorniest inquiries ever made into the progress of FDR's presidency. In 1993, some of the world's most outstanding scholars of the Holocaust and of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency came together to discuss this still explosive subject. This collection of original pieces and anthologized articles grew out of the discussions held during two successive days at the Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York. The contributors take a hard look at Roosevelt's reaction to the Holocaust, offering a timely and thought-provoking study that will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in either the FDR presidency or the Holocaust.

This important collection brings together contributions from an impressive group of scholars to comprehensively examine Franklin D. Roosevelt’s response to the Holocaust. Addressing the severe critiques of FDR that arose after the war and what some see as his failure to stop the genocide of Europe’s Jewish community, the book looks at his policies between 1933 and 1942, his rescue efforts during the war, and the possibility for future research and analysis. This is the definitive resource on a pivotal issue in American history.