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Alyssa Bell
Mr. Hawkins
World History P, Period 6
10 April 2016
The United States and the Holocaust: Immigration to the United States in the Era of the
Holocaust and the U.S. reaction to the news of the Final Solution
Tragedy that struck in an instant! The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was a
genocide in which Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed about six million
Jews and more. Jews and other groups were persecuted and targeted by the Nazi Army, led by
Adolf Hitler, who believed the groups to be an inferior race. As the German army expanded,
situations escaladed and grew into worse extents as the Jews and others were massively
transported to concentration camps, where they were brutally treated and killed. As the Nazi
Army tried to keep their operation of camps a secret, word got out and upon that, spread to the
United States. It was a big priority for the United States government for rescues of targeted Jews
and others in Nazi Germany. The United States didnt know how to react to the situation or
pursue the large-scale rescue of the painfully entangled people being involved in the Holocaust.
As the United States looked at the conditions in Germany, there were deep thoughts towards
immigration in the country, the overall tension in the U.S. itself, but also how America responded
to the news of the Final Solution.
The prosecution of Jews in Germany became very brutal and vicious, that it caused many
people to seek for shelter elsewhere. Immigration is the action of coming to live permanently in a
foreign country. A lot of people questioned whether or not the U.S. should let anyone in because
they didnt know their purposes or what they were going to do. Despite of the persecution of the

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Jews, the U.S. had more focuses on other things, which made it much harder for the incoming
immigrants. A refugee policy was exclaimed that, The U.S. State Department and its
stringent (and questionably legal) application of the 1924 Immigration Law made it
difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas (Website #1). Many people in America were
influenced by the Depression going on in the country, so some had their minds on other things
and werent focused on what was happening in Germany. The number of people entering was
strictly regulated and limited. The American government and many of the people didnt want to
accept many of the immigrants because they feared they would put the U.S. citizens at risk and
they felt it wasnt their problem to fix. The American people didnt want to put their lives and
others lives in danger because they felt that they could not trust the incoming desperate Jews. As
a following, Although some Americans sincerely believed that the country lacked the
resources to accommodate newcomers, the nativism of many others reflected the growing
problem of anti-Semitism (Website #3). At the time, the United States didnt know the
conditions or quite anything about the outcomes of the Holocaust. Many did know that the Nazis
and Hitler were trying to encourage the hatred towards Jews but didnt know how bad it was, so
the U.S. didnt feel the need to show any sympathy towards the Jewish people. Upon that, the
U.S. didnt feel strong enough about any of the mistreatments of the Jews to let them in the
country. Some tried to help though. In a result, American Jewish leaders organized a
boycott of German goods, hoping that economic pressure might force Hitler to end his antiSemitic policies and prominent American Jews (Website #3). Many people felt bad of bad
positions that the Jewish and other were exposed to, so they wanted to make up ways to help.
Some administrations set up conferences, but little was accomplished and succeeded because no
other country was willing to accept that many refugees into their countries. A lot of people

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debated of the immigration situation and wished for something to be put into action. As people
questioned the process of immigration into the U.S., there were already high tensions itself
already occurring in the land of the free.
As may negative effects were being brought on in the United States, many struggled
themselves in the states to keep everything on track. An event that put tensions and made
hostilities between people in the U.S. was the Great Depression. The Great Depression was an
economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began
in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever
experienced by the industrialized Western world. In an introduction, The Great Depression
began and they were cast into poverty and deep misery and began looking for a solution,
any solution (Website #3). Germany was hit very hard with the depression and many desperate
citizens turned towards Adolf Hitler, who they thought were going to rebuild and reconstruct
Germany into a strong nation once again. The rise of Adolf Hitler results with drastic changes
that dont all benefit the people, causing much hatred that gets the attention of the whole world.
It was difficult to focus on helping Jews and many others involved in the Holocaust, so the Jews
didnt seek the help that they had hoped for from the U.S., but not until later on. As a result,
Facing economic, social, and political oppression, thousands of German Jews wanted to
flee the Third Reich (Website #2). The Great Depression was the cause of many catastrophic
collapses all over the world. Distress spread to all citizens, which caused them to focus more
upon their own problems than of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. The Holocaust was partly a
cause of the depression because many of the German people were embarrassed of their war
defeats so they needed someone to, which was Hitler, to bring them back to the top. Adolf had
many ideas towards improving the strengths in Germany. Much of the U.S. was not involved in

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the Holocaust because of their own problems at home. In a conclusion, Attention increasingly
focused on the inadequate American response and what lay behind it (Website #3). The
U.S. felt it was their duty to help, despite the hostilities and uncertainties in the states. The
depression negatively spread through the entire world and its the main cause for the Holocaust.
The depression affected how the citizens thought, acted, and reacted towards the situations at the
time. With it, the Holocaust brought on very emotional and negative effects, which caused many
citizens to feel sympathy for the Jewish people and urged them to help more. There were high
tensions provoked in the U.S during the time of the Holocaust that caused the states to act upon
the news of the Final Solution.
When news of the plan spread to the U.S. there was a lot of controversy of what was to
be done of the problem. The Final Solution was a German plan for the extermination of the Jews
during World War II. The U.S. didnt know how to react to the situation because they feared that
it would start up another war and things would spiral out of control. As Nazi Germany was
beginning to grow in power and were gaining more followers, many other countries didnt want
to intervene or get involved in any affairs with Germany. By a way of example, The State
Department tried to prevent news of this sort from reaching U.S. citizens (Website #2).
More and more information of the Holocaust continued to arrive to the states, so the U.S.
government felt like it was their duties to protect the citizens and not to include them in these
devastating tragedies. The country wanted to ban any information for the people to hear because
the citizens could react in bizarre and unexpected ways. The U.S. wanted complete censorship
and didnt want any of the citizens to pick sides. In addition, The State Department decided
that the information passed on was nothing more than a fantastic war rumor (Website
#2). The government in America didnt want the citizens to know the real true about the idea of

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the Final Solution and what was to come. Some may not of believed of the allegations of what
people were saying was going on to the Jews in Germany and other places. Many news reports
and others deemphasized the reports on the Final Solution because it was a very delicate event
that people were aroused by. To conclude, The United States, Great Britain, and ten other
Allied governments issued a declaration revealing and denouncing Hitlers intention to
murder the Jews of Europe (Website #1). At first, the U.S. wasnt too quick to respond to the
outburst of the Final Solution because they didnt quite know the circumstances and how quickly
it would escalate. Once people heard of news about the situations, they asked for the government
to help and take action into doing something. The government felt they were responsible to do
something and put an end to all discrimination of the Jews and other groups being persecuted in
Nazi Germany. The U.S. eventually entered into war with help from others, successfully
defeating Hitler and his mighty army. America reacted to the Final Solution as a potential threat
to all and was later greatly involved in the occurrence of the Holocaust that was brought to an
end.
The U.S. sits through silence of the Holocaust as thoughts of immigration, overall
tensions, and the reaction to the Final Solution evolves. During the Holocaust, the U.S was a
very powerful and admirable country. It was difficult as the United States didnt step in or was
involved more. America adopted a policy of isolationism because there was great distances from
the Europe countries that prevented them to becoming involved in other countrys domestic and
international affairs. A variety of theories complied as to why the U.S. was waiting so long until
entering the war. There was much denial and ignorance in the states that promoted anti-Semitic
ways explained to as why the U.S. failed to becoming involved with the Holocaust. Some people

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remained neutral of the situation while others felt like they needed to help. With all of that, some
things could have gone differently, but we cant change what happened in the past.