Getting the Holocaust Strait

For John, BLUF:  The performance of the United States Goveernment toward Germany's handling of Jews in the 1930s and early 1940s was abominable.  Including the actions of President Franklin D Roosevelt.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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PBS Holocaust documentary perpetuates well-worn myths to glorify FDR, says historian

Here is the sub-headline:

Streaming this week, historian Rafael Medoff says ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’ misrepresents President Roosevelt’s actions leading up to and during the genocide

From The Times of Israel, by Reporter Matt Lebovic, 18 September 2022, 10:11 pm.

Here is the lede plus four:

Early in his new film “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” documentarian Ken Burns claims the United States admitted more Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany than any other country on Earth.

The problem with this statement, according to historian Rafael Medoff, is that it flies in the face of publicly available data on refugees from that period.

Clocking in at six hours, “The U.S. and the Holocaust” begins airing on PBS this week.  In recent press interviews, Burns said he attempted to handle Roosevelt “more critically” for “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” compared to the previous, somewhat glowing treatments of FDR in his other documentaries on the period.

Calling Burns “seriously mistaken” about the issue of Jewish refugees, Medoff told The Times of Israel that the discrepancy is connected to several other “well-worn myths” that appear in “The U.S. and the Holocaust.”  These myths, said Medoff, run the gamut from why the US could not rescue Anne Frank to Roosevelt’s role in the “St. Louis” affair, alongside the perennial debate on bombing the tracks to Auschwitz.

Medoff is an American professor of Jewish history and the founding director of The David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which is based in Washington, DC.  He is the author of “America and the Holocaust: A Documentary History,” among other works on the Holocaust and Zionist history.

Yes, this is one historian's view of the work of another historian, but it should cause us to be cautious in acceptying whst is presented to us about the Holcaust.  Some don't even accept the existence of the Holocaust as an historic event.  During an interview on CBS's '60 Minutes" The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, commented that “there are some signs” that the Holocaust happened but that the issue required more research.  Perhaps I should sent the Irnian UN Mission a book for the President.

Here is another view on the Ken Burns Documentsry, by Ms Carla Seaquist, "'The U.S. and the Holocaust': Documentary Throws Harsh Light on 'Immigrant Nation'".

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff