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seven State of the Union addresses concluded that Roosevelt responded to past “coverage
in the newspapers more than he influenced subsequent coverage”; a trend that continued
during the wartime years. 50
Overall, the President maintained a significant level of public silence over the
fate of Jews in Central Europe. During 1933 eight-two press conferences were held in
which the subject of Jews arose on only one occasion when a reporter inquired if
Roosevelt had been asked by Jewish and other refugee organizations to develop policies
opposing the persecution of minorities within the Reich. FDR noted that a “good many
of these [entreaties] have come in” but were all transmitted to the State Department. The
next reference to the Jews in a Presidential news conference would only take place five
years and 348 conferences later on September 2, 1938 when he was asked if he had an
opinion on the Italian plan to deport 22,000 foreign Jews; FDR responded “no.” During
Kristallnacht and its aftermath the President was questioned during seven press
conferences about the situation of the Jews within Greater Germany. He offered only one
definitive statement: the Labor Department had been instructed to extend the duration of
15,000 German and Austrian tourist visas but he qualified this action by noting that they
were “not all Jews by any means.” 51 Roosevelt’s awareness of domestic isolationism and
The Office of War Information was closed by Executive Order 9608 of August 31, 1945 and the Bureau of
Special Services was once again transferred to the Bureau of the Budget. Finally, the Division of Press
Intelligence was assigned to the Office of Government Records that was reestablished with Executive
Order 9809 of December 12, 1946. National Archives and Records Administration The United States
Government Manual, 2009-2010 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2009), 662.
50 Thomas J. Johnson, Wayne Wanta, John T. Byrd and Cindy Lee, “Exploring FDR’s Relationship with
the Press: A Historical Agenda-Setting Study,” Political Communication 12 (1995): 196.
51 Complete Presidential Press Conferences, vol. 20, 52-7; vol. 11, 248-9; vol. 12, 41, 69, 224, 228-9,
238-41, 247, 257, 280-1, 286.
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