New book says FDR tried to save Jewish refugees

[Drunken Irishman]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_re_us/us_fdr_jewish_refugees

NEW YORK – A new book disputes widely held assumptions that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was insensitive to the plight of European Jews under the Nazis, and instead concludes that he tried to arrange resettlement for thousands of refugees in the late 1930s, only to be thwarted by his own State Department.

The book, "Refugees and Rescue," claims FDR developed plans in 1938 for the United States to fill its immigration quota with 27,000 Jews from Germany and Austria and to send others to British-held Palestine and friendly nations in Africa and Latin America.

"Most of the initiatives to resettle refugees in underdeveloped areas proved impossible, met substantial resistance abroad, or developed very slowly partly because of resistance by the Department of State," the Center for Jewish History says in a statement about the book.

[tbyg52]

1. I heard that on the radio this AM. I was very happy to hear it. nt

[jwirr]

2. Years ago I remember hearing that he tried to pay for their release

but couldn't get his government to go along with it.

[Hippo_Tron]

3. Congress, the State Department, and public opinion were against him

And unfortunately FDR's approval was at its low point in 1938. It's really tragic.

[Captain Hilts]

4. He was upset about the plight of Eur. Jews, but for politics' sake he made Breckenridge Long...

in charge of refugees. It cost hundreds, perhaps 1000s of lives.

Eleanor: Long's a fascist.
Franklin: Eleanor, you musn't say that.
Eleanor: Well, he IS!