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Robert Rosen declared the President “never left anyone in doubt about his
position” on the German persecution of Jews and non-Aryans but “it is only in retrospect
that many have ignored this record.” Roosevelt, according to the author, came out
“eloquently and forcefully” against Nazi policies and persecutions and during the late
1930s focused primarily on the Jews. 81
Rosen’s critics, however, maintain the
Administration remained “silent” about anti-Jewish actions for most of the decade.
During eighty one Presidential Press Conferences held during 1933 the issue of German
anti-Semitism was raised only once and not by FDR. It would take five more years and
348 further press conferences before the subject was broached again (on the part of a
reporter and not the President). During a September 2, 1938 meeting with reporters the
President was asked to comment on the Fascist Italian order to deport 22,000 Jews.
FDR’s response: “No.” Rosen also claimed that Roosevelt “provid[ed] as much relief” to
Jewish refugees as were permissible under the existing immigration laws. His detractors
responded by noting the number of quota spots filled during that period: 5.3% in 1933,
13.7% in 1934, 20.2% in 1935, 24.3% in 1936, 42.1% in 1937 and 65.3% in 1938. If the
quotas had been filled to the maximum then a total of 154,220 refugees would have been
admitted compared with the actual figure of 46,771 due to Consulate and State
Department intransigence. 82
81 Robert N. Rosen, Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust (NY: Thunder’s Mouth
Press, 2006), xiv-xv; 440, 450.
82 Laurel Leff and Rafael Medoff, “Whitewashing FDR’s Holocaust Record: An Analysis of Robert N.
Rosen’s Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust , New Documents Shed More Light on
FDR’s Holocaust Failure,” April 2004, available from http://www.wymaninstitute.org/articles/2004-04-
fdrdocs.php; Internet; accessed June 12, 2010. By mid-1939 400,000 had emigrated from the Reich of
whom 73,322 found permanent residence in the U.S., 70,000 in Palestine, and 50,000 in Latin America and
12,000 within the British Dominions. 200,000 remained in sites of temporary refuge in Europe. 104,098
Germans entered the United States via the quota by the end of the 1941 fiscal year of which 75-85% were
338