The Holocaust and the Refugee Crisis
In the years leading up to World War II, Americans watched from afar as Adolf Hitler’s regime in Germany stripped Jewish citizens of their rights, livelihoods, and safety. While news of Nazi brutality made its way into U.S. newspapers and government reports, the American response was complex—and often deeply conflicted.
Fear, prejudice, economic anxiety, and isolationist attitudes shaped how the United States approached the growing refugee crisis. As the Holocaust began to unfold, the choices Americans made about immigration, aid, and intervention would leave a lasting human cost.
The Rise of the Refugee Crisis
By the mid-1930s, Nazi Germany had passed laws that targeted Jewish citizens for discrimination and exclusion. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 stripped Jews of their citizenship and basic protections. Violence like the 1938 Kristallnacht attacks showed that Jewish life in Germany—and eventually across Nazi-occupied Europe—was becoming increasingly dangerous.
As persecution intensified, thousands of Jews sought to flee Germany and its expanding territories. They looked to countries like the United States for refuge. However, U.S. immigration policies at the time were strict. National quotas heavily restricted how many immigrants could enter, especially from Eastern and Southern Europe. Long-standing antisemitism, racism, and fears about economic competition during the Great Depression made Americans wary of accepting refugees.
The Evian Conference and Missed Opportunities
In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened the Evian Conference in France, asking 32 nations to discuss solutions for the growing refugee crisis. Yet most countries, including the United States, refused to significantly raise their immigration quotas. Only the tiny Dominican Republic agreed to accept a large number of Jewish refugees.
Although the conference acknowledged the suffering of refugees, it exposed the unwillingness of much of the world to act decisively—and left Jewish families with few places to turn for safety.
The Voyage of the MS St. Louis
One of the most heartbreaking examples of U.S. policy during this period was the story of the MS St. Louis. In 1939, the German ship set sail for Cuba carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. When Cuba refused to allow most passengers to disembark, the ship sailed toward the United States, hoping for asylum.
Despite public sympathy for the passengers' plight, the U.S. government denied them entry, citing immigration laws and fears of spies entering the country. Forced to return to Europe, many of the passengers later perished in concentration camps—having been turned away within sight of American shores. The tragedy of the St. Louis remains a powerful symbol of the deadly consequences of inaction.
Voices of Opposition and Fear
American public opinion was not unified. Some individuals and groups pushed for greater action to help Jewish refugees. For example, Senator Robert Wagner and Representative Edith Rogers proposed the Wagner-Rogers Bill in 1939, which would have allowed 20,000 Jewish children to enter the United States outside of immigration quotas. Despite strong support from religious and humanitarian organizations, the bill failed in Congress amid widespread public opposition.
Opposition to aiding refugees was fueled by a growing isolationist movement. Organizations like the America First Committee warned against becoming entangled in European conflicts and opposed efforts that might draw the U.S. closer to war. Figures like Father Charles Coughlin, a popular Catholic priest and radio personality, spread antisemitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories that portrayed Jewish refugees as threats rather than victims.
Economic fears also played a role. Many Americans, still reeling from the Depression, worried that immigrants would take scarce jobs or burden social services. Prejudices against Jews and other minorities, already deeply rooted, were amplified by fear and uncertainty.
A Missed Moral Opportunity
By the time the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941, the full scale of the Nazi extermination program—the organized genocide of European Jews—was not yet fully grasped by the American public. However, evidence of mass atrocities, persecution, and desperate pleas for refuge had circulated for years.
While some Americans advocated for compassion and warned of the growing danger, the broader national response was shaped by fear, antisemitism, and a desire to avoid involvement in another European war. Immigration laws remained tightly enforced. Rescue efforts remained small and slow. The Holocaust ultimately claimed the lives of six million Jews—and countless others—across Europe.
The U.S. would later help lead the defeat of Nazi Germany and provide aid to displaced survivors after the war. Yet the years between 1933 and 1941 stand as a chapter marked by missed opportunities to act, a failure of courage, and lessons about the cost of silence in the face of injustice.
The refugee crisis of the 1930s challenged Americans to decide who they were—and what they stood for. Their choices remind us that compassion, action, and the defense of human dignity are responsibilities that cannot wait.