1. ? A Look into America and the Holocaust

2. An innocent bystander is someone who during a certain event is unknowledgeable as to what is going on and thus can do nothing to help. If that person or those people had known what was taking place, they would not be innocent. During the pre World War II era, Hitler and the Nazis began making an attempt to completely eliminate all of the Jewish people. This was called the Holocaust. American leaders knew that this was going on, but they consciously decided to take no action. The United States government was not an innocent bystander in World War II, because although they knew that the Holocaust was taking place, they still chose to stall and wait it out rather than taking any action to fight against it. It took a direct attack on the United States for them to enter the war and fight. A Look into America and the Holocaust

3. Dictionary.com defines the “Holocaust” as “a massive slaughter” and more specifically, “the genocide of European Jews and others by the Nazis during World War II.” When Hitler rose to power in 1933, he preached that the Jews as well as other minorities in Europe were sub-human and should be persecuted. Jews from all over Europe were split up and put into ghettos and eventually sent to concentration camps. A Look into America and the Holocaust

4. For most of the Holocaust, the United States took no action to aid the European Jews. Although the United States had acknowledged that the Holocaust was happening, the anti- Semitism among government officials was just too strong. For example, the few Jews who managed to get their immigration papers processed were rejected when it came time for them to enter America. Although, there was a lot of talk about what could be done to help the Jews (such proposals included bombing the railroads that transported victims to the concentration camps), no action was taken. The people in charge of making those decisions, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Department of State officials, stalled and deliberated as a tactic for not having to take any action. These leaders also realized that the general public would be outraged by the mistreatment of the Jews, so they delayed publicizing the reports of the killings. They hoped that everything would end without them having to do anything. A Look into America and the Holocaust

5. The Holocaust was responsible for the murder of approximately 6 million Jews. The Concentration or “Death” camps, Aushwitz, Dachau, Aktion Reinhard, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Chelmno, Maidanek, and Mauthausen contributed to tons of Jewish deaths. Although some Jews tried to resist being captured, the Nazis were too strong and too powerful being that they had no real opponent. They were able to go about killing all of the Jews that they could and there was no consequence. Hitler’s goal was being fulfilled. While the physical effects on the Jews were so extremely damaging, it was the mental effects that had an even bigger impact. Jews in the camps lost the will to live. In MAUS, Anja even says, “My whole family is gone!…Oh God. Let me die too!” (Spiegelman Volume 1: 122). Furthermore, well after the surviving Jews got out of the camps, the legacy of the Holocaust has lived on with those whose families suffered through it. A Look into America and the Holocaust

6. “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a day which will live in infamy,” (Roosevelt “War Message to Congress”). On this day, the Japanese military performed a sneak attack on the United States naval base, Pearl Harbor on the Oahu Island in Hawaii. Over 2,300 Americans were killed. Obviously, the American people were outraged, and in President Roosevelt’s speech, “War Message to Congress”, he asked that Congress protect the “supremacy of human rights” and declare war on the Empire of Japan. Being that Japan was a member of the Axis (a group made up of Japan, Germany, and Italy), the Germans would finally have a worthy opponent. The defeat of the Germans would undoubtedly end the Holocaust. Finally, action was taking place. A Look into America and the Holocaust

7. Although well into the war, the United States still did not take any direct action to rescue the Jews, they did put up a strong fight against the Axis. The Axis started to wear down around the same time that the Allies (United States included) started to realize their full potential. Hitler’s reign ended after the Axis was defeated in Berlin. Hitler killed himself, and the reign of German power was over. By September, 1945, all of the fighting had ended, and the U.S. and British troops liberated the Jews from the concentration camps.

8. Although eventually, Hitler and the Nazis were stopped, one can always wonder, what if. What if the United States had leapt into action as soon as they knew about the Holocaust? What if the Germans were defeated before they could harm anyone? What if six million people hadn’t died? What if? A Look into America and the Holocaust