AMERICAN IMMIGRATION POLICIES 1939-1945

United States immigration policies between 1939 and 1945 were essentially anti-immigration.  A case in point is the Wagner-Rogers Child Refugee Bill which would've allowed 20,000 German children temporary sanctuary in America.  It was supported by the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, but was opposed by the American Legion, among other groups.  It was withdrawn when it was amended so that the children replaced 20,000 adult visa applicants.

The cruise ship St. Louis was not allowed to dock in Miami even though 734 of the 936 passengers aboard were approved for immigration.  All 907 of the passengers who were not allowed off in Havana had to return to various countries in Europe.

These immigration practices, among others, led to a sharp increase in ZOA membership - from 8,600 in 1932, to 43,000 in 1939, to 200,000 by 1945.

The main obstruction to immigration was, as I've noted earlier, the United States State Department.  They didn't appoint Herbert Pell as United States representative on the War Crimes Commission until April 1943, 10 months after the Commission was esablished.  They didn't even send him to the Commission's headquarters in London until December 1943.  Pell resigned later because of lack of State Department support.  At the Bermuda Conference the United States again offered only to finance the refugee support and evacuation efforts of neutral nations.

The Intergovernmental Committee of Refugees (ICR) was formed with the intention of placing refugees in its member nations.  Nazi Germany offered to sell ICR 150,000 Jews for $1,200,000,000 but ICR had no authority to make the purchase.  When Nazi Germany sent a delegation of Jews to ICR headquarters in London they refused to help because ICR never actually existed.

In December 1943 the United States Treasury Department attempted to take over the refugee policy from the State Department.  Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. submitted a "Personal Report to the President" in which he accused the State Department of being "indifferent, callous, and perhaps even hostile".  Franklin Roosevelt then established the War Refugee Board (WRB) in January 1944.  The WRB facilitated the rescue of 118,000 of us but even these efforts were obstructed by the State Department.  As an example, the State Department prevented a WRB message from reaching the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which ceased refusing to push for a presence in concentration camps, or increase its staff in Hungary, until after 400,000 of us were deported to Auschwitz.