While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy

by Arthur D. Morse

Book Overview

Draws attention to the United States' response to the plight of European Jews. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000LA5UY0
• Release Date: January 1968
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 435 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A chronicle of apathy in the face of genocide

This volume tells of how the USA and Britain during World War II, were not only apathetic to the fate of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, but actually obstructed all efforts to save them. The book explores the questions: What did the rest of the world, in particular the United States and Great Britain, know about the Nazi plans for the annihilation of the Jews? What was their reaction to this knowledge? After it was learned from a German industrialist, and relayed by the representative in Switzerland of the World Jewish Congress, Gerhardt Riegner, of the plans by the Nazis to exterminate European Jewry (and after well over a million Jewish men, women and children had already been butchered , Czech exile Ernest Frischer urged the Allies urged the Allies to ease the blockade of Nazi-occupied Europe so that relief supplies could reach occupied Europe, and proposed that the International Red Cross supply food parcels to ghettos and concentration camps as it did prisoner of war camps. He asked that Jewish children be evacuated from German-occupied territories. It was debated but no action in this regard was taken. By January 1943, new evidence had come to light about Nazi mass murder. Riegner provided the American State Department a detrailed 4 page description of Nazi atrocities. It was reported that the Nazis were killing six thousand Jews each day in Poland. A 'Stop Hitler Now' Rally was organized by Rabbi Stephen Wise at Madison Square Gardens on March 1, 1943.Chaim Weizmann, President of the Jewish Agency for Palestine stated that "The world can no longer plead that the ghastly facts are unknown and uncomfirmed. At this moment expressions of sympathy without accompanying attempts to launch acts become a hollow mockery in the ears of the dying. The democracies have a clear duty before them. Let them negotiate with Germany through the neutral countries concerning the possible release of the Jews in the occupied countries. Let havens be designated in the vast territories of the United Nations which will give sanctuary to those fleeing from imminent murder. Let the gates of Palestine be opened...the Jewish community of Palestine will welcome with joy and and thanksgiving all delivered from Nazi hands". Due to violent Arab opposition to Jews entering Palestine, the British closed the gates of the Palestine Mandate and turned back thousands of Jews fleeing Hitler back to the Nazi ovens. The British announced that there would be no Jewish immigration into the ancient Jewish homeland "unless the Arabs are prepared to acquiesce in it.". They were not, and so millions of Jews who could have been saved died. The British also rejected the idea of a Jewish parachute unit from Palestine to rescue Jews in Europe, as they were afraid this would advance Jewish Nationhood in the Land of Israel. The USA refused entry to many Jewish refugees, including a consignment of ten thousand Jewish children, because of domestic objection to J

A chilling account of America's indifference

This is one of the most important books written on the Shoah.To reply to the reviewer who wanted to know what America could have done I dont know maybe excepted boats of Jews when they tried to come to America instead of refusing to and sending them back to their eventual slaughter. Thats just one of many.

I am Liberty

I have written my review in the form of a poem.I dedicate this poem to Arthur D. Morse:I am Liberty. I am Columbia. I am the Mother of Exiles!Never again will my head be bowed down in tears, My torch held low and dim. Shame on you Franklin Roosevelt for the Bloody stain on my gown, which shall Never wash off.I am the Mother of Exiles! Suffer my children unto me and I will protect thee. Woe be unto those who commit murder and mayhem upon thee! For I will step down from my pedestal, Not with books in my hand but with a flaming sword, And my shining torch. And lead my children to freedom and safety!Heed my words, those who choose to destroy freedom. For I am Liberty. I am Columbia. I am America!

One of the most influential books I have ever read

This was a book that changed my life. It's fast and spell binding reading. An amazing drama that's only too real.

Absolutely Ashamed to be an American

I checked this book out of the library after a discussion with friends of American knowledge of the impending extermination of Jews in America after watching "Schindler's List." At page 68 of 400 I had to throw the book down in tears. I'm not sure if I can bear to read any further. At this point I am absolutely ashamed to be an American or have been affiliated with the Allies not only because of the utter apathy because of our own "interests" but also for the shameful disregard for countless first-hand pleas of help of Jews on their plight to "resettlements" and "reservations." Shame on fellow Christians. Shame on the entire United States Government. Shame on the entire British Government. Shame on the Allies. God help us. Fearfully the common cliche comes to mind: "The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history." What else can be said? Perhaps you can get farther in this book than I have.