Sociology 4395: Worksheet--"The American Experience: America and the Holocaust"

1. When and how did the first authenticated information about the Nazi killing of 2 million Jews and their plans to murder the rest first reach the American people and their leaders? What was the role of Rabbi Nathan Wise?

2. Who was Kurt Klein and why was he used to frame this story?

3. How did American immigration laws make it more difficult to take steps to save the Jews of Europe?

4. What were some of the ways in which American anti-Semitism was expressed during the years of the Depression and World War II?

5. How did the American State Department come to be a major obstacle to the immigration and rescue of European Jews? How did the Treasury Department come to be one of the major proponents of immigration and rescue?

6. What was the role of the following individuals?
a. President Franklin Roosevelt

b. Peter Bergson

c. Congressman Will Rogers Jr.

d. Ben Hecht

7. What was Executive Order 9417, why was it signed by Roosevelt, and what were its results?

Sociology 4395: Groups--"America and the Holocaust"

1. Why do you think the American immigration law of 1924 set such tight restriction on immigration from eastern and Southern Europe?

2. Why do you suppose there was so little response to the November 1942 article in the New York Times and other major American newspapers confirming the Nazi plan to exterminate all the Jews of Europe?

3. I often hear that at least in the European part of World War II, America was fighting a war against German racism and genocide. What are the facts as portrayed in this video? Why do you suppose the war gets portrayed this way, and what might be the good and bad aspects of that kind of interpretation?

4. Do you think the United States as a government should commit its resources, including its military, to the prevention or suppression of genocide? If not, do you see any particular government or organization as having that responsibility? What do you see as the proper role of religious organizations in relation to genocide or ethnic cleansing?

Note: If you are interested, the UMD library has a video, "One Survivor Remembers" (VC 2816) which tells the story of Gerda Weissman Klein, the Jewish survivor of Nazi forced labor camps, who eventually marries Kurt Klein. I have placed it on reserve for this class, and it would qualify for extra credit.