SJCA Announces a Panel Discussion of the Documentary, America and the Holocaust, Wednesday, May 6 at 7 pm on Zoom
Saratoga Jewish Community Arts, generously supported by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York and sponsored by Temple Sinai, presents a panel discussion on Zoom of the public television documentary, America and the Holocaust, Wednesday, May 6 at 7 pm.
America and the Holocaust explores the decisions that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his State Department made to block news about the growing genocide in Europe, as well as to keep Jewish immigration drastically below the limits of an-already tight quota system, both before and during World War II.
That policy’s result: nearly 200,000 Jews eligible for entry into America were barred and subsequently murdered in the Holocaust. Americans’ self-image of ethical uprightness in the face of Nazi terror remained an unexamined myth of national life that was shattered by this 1994 film, directed by Martin Ostrow, and by later documentaries by Ken Burns and others.
Ostrow reveals how social, political, and economic forces in America during the Roosevelt years shaped the U.S. government’s response to growing antisemitism in Europe. Racism, antisemitism and isolationism during those years permeated both political parties.
Since the end of WWII, evidence has accumulated that before and during the war, the State Department was in effect a pioneer in Holocaust revisionism. The film traces the Government’s apparent indifference to the antisemitism of the 1920s and 1930s, typified by the German American Bund’s mass rallies and Rev. Charles Coughlin’s antisemitic radio broadcasts. Nativist politicians echoed their hate-filled messages. In the film, a former Treasury Department official says State Department officials shrugged off the plight of European refugees in deference to America’s perceived economic and political interests in the Middle East.
Do the forces that fueled America’s indifference to refugees’ plight in last century persist today, in old and guises?
“The record may stir uncomfortable, if not infuriating, thoughts about current American behavior toward refugees seeking to escape despotism, war and other abysmal conditions,” said Phyllis Wang, Coordinator of the SJCA series.
Where to Watch the Film
The documentary is available to stream free on YouTube. Click https://youtu.be/ZG1GR61qkls?si=3ngOBSO_yxtHksus
How to Register
Pre-registration is required. Click the blue box above or enter the URL below in your browser: