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Outline
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Thesis Statement: The differences between the lifes of Jews in Germany and America

during the Holocaust and how anti-semitism affected immigration laws in America

during World War II.

Introduction: The life of Jews changed during World War II. The most dramatic

change was the Holocaust in Germany, but it also changed in America and it wasn´t

easy for Jews, because many people hated Jews without any reason. After the Allies

liberated the Jews out of the Concentration Camps, many Jews immigrated to Israel

and America. Because of the immigration laws, which changed during the Holocaust,

it was not easy to immigrate, because they had limited visa. During the Holocaust

Jews couldn´t live they lifes like before. There were many things they were not

allowed to do.

I. Life in Germany

1. Jewish life changed at the beginning of World War II.

a. "As soon as the Nazis assumed power in 1933 they instituted antisemitic

regulations, steadily slicing away Jews' rights" ("The Second World

war" par. 2).

b. "German regulations initially exempted Jewish was veterans and elderly

persons over the age of sixty-five, as well as Jews living in mixed marriages

("privileged marriages") with German "Aryans" and the offspring of those

marriages from anti-Jewish measures, including deportations"("German Jews

During the Holocaust, 1939-1945" par. 12 ).

2. The life in concentration camps

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a. " Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established about 20.000

camps to imprison its many millions of victims. These camps were used for

a range of purposes uncluding forced-labor camps, transit camps which

severd as temporary way stations, and extermination camps built primarily or

exclusively for mass murder" ("Nazi Camps" par. 1 ).

b. " The Nazis constructed gas chambers ( rooms that filled with poison gas to

kill those inside ) to increase killing efficiency and to make the process more

impersonal for the perpetrators" ("Nazi Camps" par. 6).

II. America and the Holocaust

1. How America was integrated in the Holocaust

a. " Of course, American anti-Semitism never approached the intensity of

Jew-hatred in Nazi Germany, but pollsters found that many Americans looked

upon Jews unfavorably." (" Holocaust, American Response to the." par. 4)

b. "During World War II, rescue of Jews an other victims of the Nazis was

not a priority for the United States government" ("The United States and the

Holocaust" par. 1).

2. America liberated the Concentration Camps

a. "As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives against

Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners,

as well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another” ("The

Holocaust" par. 7).

b. "American soldiers forced German civilians to look at the dead bodies of

concentration camp inmates tortured by the Nazis. To make sure that

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ordinary Germans could not deny knowledge of what had happend in the

camps, the American military authorities often insisted that local citizens be

forced to see what had been found in the liberated camps"

("Germany after the Holocaust" par. 2).

III. After the Holocaust

1. The life of Jews changed after the Holocaust

a. "In 1945, Jewish life in Germany lay in ruins. Of the half million Jews

who had lived in Germany in 1933, only about fifteen thousand had

managend to survive within Germany itself" ("Germany after the

Holocaust" par. 3 ).

b. "Many survivors ended up in displaced persons´ camps set up in western

Europe under Allied military occupation at the sites of former concentration

camps. They waited to be admitted to places like the United States, South

Africa, or Palestine" ("The Survivors" par. 3).

2. Many Jews immigrated

a. The largest survivor group organization, Sh'erit ha-Pletah ( Hebrew for

"survivng remnant" ), pressed for greater emigration opportunities. Yet

opportunities for legal immigration to the United States above the existing

quota restrictions were still limited. Many borders in Europe were also

closed to these homeless people" ( "The Aftermath of the Holocaust" par. 5).

b. "After the war, President Truman favored efforts to relax U.S.

immigration restrictions for Jewish displaced persons. A December 1945

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executive order allowed for 16,000 Jewish refugees to enter the United

States between 1946 and 1948. With the passage of the Displaced Persons

Act in 1948, U.S. authorities granted approximately 400,000 visas to

immigrants above the quota system. Jewish DPs received 80,000 of these

visas" ("United States Policy and its impact on European Jews" par. 14).

Conclusion: The life of Jews during the Holocaust in Germany was horrible, and

unbelievable. Jews couldn´t do what German "Aryans" were allowed to do. They

were treated kind of like animals and not like human beings. The Nazis killed almost

every Jewish person, it didn´t matter wether they were old, small children, or didn´t

had the Jewish religion. Everyone who had Jewish ancestors. Many Jews and survivors

tried to immigrate to the United States and other countries, but that wasn´t easy, because

of the immigration laws. Many Jews lived in displaced person camps after the liberation

of the Concentration Camps and waited till they could immigrate to the USA.

Final Statement: The Jewish life in Germany was much more dramatically and harder

than in America. In Germany Jews had less rights, couldn´t go when and where they

wanted to, and where delayed and killed in Concentration Camps.

The life of Jews changed during World War II. The most dramatic change was the

Holocaust in Germany, but it also changed in America and it wasn´t easy for Jews,
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because many people hated Jews without any reason. After the Allies liberated the Jews

out of the Concentration Camps, many Jews immigrated to Israel and America. Because

of the immigration laws, which changed during the Holocaust, it was not easy to

immigrate, because they had limited visa. During the Holocaust Jews couldn´t live they

lifes like before. There were many things they were not allowed to do.

The Holocaust was a systematic murder of about six million Jews by Nazis

between the years 1941 and 1945. With the beginning of the war, the Nazis started to

take away Jewish rights. They had to pay much higher taxes than German "Aryans",

Aryans were the highest race of Germans with blond hair and blue eyes. Jews couldn´t
go

to schools and universities any longer, and were fired from civil service positions. The

Holocaust started even before World War II, it wasn´t as bad as it was during the war,

but the Nazis started slicing away a few Jewish rights by 1930, they were not allowed to

play in orchestras, could just go grocery shopping late in the afternoon, when most of the

food is already sold. They also had to live in certain areas in cities in Germany. Jews

were not allowed to use public transportation or swimming in pool. Also they could just

benches in parks that had a sign on that says "for Jews only".To make sure that everyone

knows who is Jewish and who is not, Jews had to add the name Sarah if you are a girl,

and Israel if you are a boy to their birth names. Every Jew over the age of six had to wear

a yellow star which were attached to their clothes. The Nazis had a system to say who

was a Jew. A Jew was a person with at least three Jewish grandparents or someone with
two Jewish grandparents and participated in Jewish communal activities. "German

regulations initially exempted Jewish was veterans and elderly persons over the age of
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sixty-five, as well as living in mixed marriages ("privileged marriages") with German

"Aryans" and the offspring of those marriages from anti-Jewish measures, including

deportations.” ("German Jews During the Holocaust, 1939-1945" par.12).

The Nazis established about 20,000 camps in the years 1933-1945. "These

facilities were called "concentration camps" because those imprisoned there were

physically "concentrated" in one location." ("Nazi Camps" par.1).

There were three different kinds of concentration camps: Forced labor camps,

extermination camps, and transit camps.

"Concentration Camps in Europe" www.religionstudy.com

Forced labor camps are camps in which the prisoners had to do hard work without proper

clothes, equipment or food. The workers had like in all concentration camps not enough

food, thats why so many died, because of starvation and diseases. Jews who were

physically unable to work, were the first who were shot or deported in different camps.

Some prisoners were working to death. "For example , at the Mauthausen concentration
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camp, emaciated prisoners were forced to run up 186 steps out of a stone quarry while

carrying heavy boulders." ("Forced Labor:overview", par. 1, 5)

"The Nazis established killing centers for efficient mass murder. Unlike

concentration camps, which served primarily as detention and labor centers, killing

centers ( also referred to as "extermination camps" or "death camps") were almost

exclusively "death factories." German SS and police murdered nearly 2,700,000 Jews in

the killing centers either by asphyxiation with poison gas or by shooting." ("Killing

Centers: Overview" par. 1)

Transit Camps were temporary way stations. ("Nazi Camps" par.1)

The life in Nazi Camps were horrible. Lots of people died because of starvation and

diseases. Nazi docters performed also in some camps medical experiments on prisoners.

("Nazi Camps" par.3)

The life of jews in America was a lot easier. but pollsters found out that non-

Jewish Americans looked upon Jews unfavorably.("Holocaust, American Response to

the" par.4) "During World War II, rescue of Jews an other victims of the Nazis was not a

priority for the United States government." ("The United States and the Holocaust" par.1)

They delayed publicizing reports in newspapers of genocide and the refugee policy made

it difficult for refugees to get a visa to enter the United States.("The United States and
the

Holocaust" par.1)
On April 19, 1943 representatives from America and Great Britain met to find

solutions because of the refugee problems. "U.S. authorities did not, however, initiate

any action aimed at rescuing refugees until 1944, when Roosevelt established the War
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Refugee Board (WRB). That year the WRB set up the Fort Ontario Refugee Center in

Oswego, NY, to facilitate rescue of imperiled refugees. By the time the War refugee

Board was established, however, four fifths of the Jews who would die in the Holocaust

were already dead" ("United States and the Holocaust" par.3)."In the final months of the

war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called "death

marches," in an attempt to prevent the Allied forces liberation of large numbers of

prisoners" ("The Holocaust" par.7).

As Allied forces come to Europe they started to encounter and liberate

Concentration Camp prisoners, as well as prisoners on the forced marches.("The

Holocaust" par.7) When they entered the Camps they found piles of corpses, bones and

human ashes. They found many survivors, who had diseases and were almost dead

because of starvation.("The Aftermath of the Holocaust" par. 1). Germany lost the way

completely. ("Germany after the Holocaust" par.1) Germany was divided into four parts:

Soviet, British, American, and French. The Americans destroyed everything that

belonged to the Nazis to make sure that they will never start something that is as horrible

as the Holocaust again. ("Germany after the Holocaust" par.1)

"American soldiers forced German civilians to look at the dead bodies of

concentration camp inmates tortured by the Nazis. To make sure that ordinary

Germans could not deny knowledge of what happened in the camps, the American
military authorities often insisted that local citizens be forced to see what had been

found in the liberated camps." ("Germany after the Holocaust" par.2)

Before the war about half million Jews lived in Germany, only about fifteen

thousand survived the Holocaust.("Germany after the Holocaust" par.3) About 3,500 of
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the 15,000 survivors returned to their old homes and helped to build houses, because

they believed that it would be a new and better Germany. About 200,000 Jews from

eastern Europe fled to Displaced Person Camps. Under the control of the Allied forces

Germany was a much safer place for Jews than other European countries at this time. For

example in Poland. Polish Jews who survived and came back to their home town, they

were often greeted with violence and were hated .("Germany after the Holocaust" par.1)

The people in Displaced Person Camps waited to immigrate to the United States, South

Africa, Italy, and Palestine.

"At first, many countries continued their old immigration policies, which greatly

limited the number of refugees they would accept." The British government controlled

Palestine at the time and refused to let large numbers of Jews in the country, thats why

many Jews tried to enter the country without legal papers and when the got caught

they were sent back to Germany or were kept on Cyprus.("The Survivors" par.2)

"Between 1945 and 1951, the United States (along with Great Britain) became the

guardian of more than a million displaced persons in Germany, Austria, Italy and

Czechoslovakia, including 250,000 Jews at the peak period in late 1945." ("United

States Policy and its impact on European Jews" par. 11) "The largest survivor

organization, Sh´erit ha-Pletah, pressed for greater emigration opportunities. Yet

opportunities for legal emigration to the United States above the existing quota

restrictions were still limited." ("The Aftermath of the Holocaust" par.5) President

Truman relaxed the U.S. immigration policy after the war for Jewish refugees. It

allowed 16,000 displaced persons to enter the United States between 1946 and 1948.

Because of the Displaced Persons Act, the United States gave 1948 about 400,000
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visas to immigrants above the quota system. Jews received about 80,000 of these.

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http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/eliweb

Foner, Eric, and John A. Garraty. "Holocaust, American Response to the".

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http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/eliweb

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