Summary Of David Wayman's Abandonment Of The Jews

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The United States could have contributed more efficiently by helping the Jewish people escape the barbarity that occurred in Europe with the leadership of their current president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although President Roosevelt was concerned about the Jewish people, he did not care enough to initiate change and get them out of Europe until it was too late. In the book Abandonment of The Jews by David Wayman, Wayman demonstrates how the United States and British government turned down offers to get the Jews out of Europe to protection. Wayman argues how the president of the United States at the time, …show more content…

Wayman states how Roosevelt refused safety to Jewish refugees, in example, he failed to order the bombing of railway lines leading to Auschwitz. This is an example of an opportunity Roosevelt could have seized. Wayman states, “America's response to the Holocaust was the result of action and inaction on the part on the many people. In the forefront was Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose steps to aid Europe's Jews were very limited. If he had wanted to know, he could have aroused substantial public backing for a vital rescue effort by speaking out on the issue. If nothing else, a few forceful statements by the president would have brought the extermination news out of obscurity and into the headlines. But he had little to say about the problem and gave no priority at all to rescue” (Wayman 311). Wayman is stating that even speaking about the topic and being public about it can lead to

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