In early 1934, the Frank family would be living in Amsterdam, hoping, like many Jews from Germany, to reach the United States. U.S. newspapers published abundant reports of German antisemitic lawlessness, but many readers were skeptical, remembering discredited World War I propaganda about German atrocities. But when the United States entered the war, fear spread that European immigrants might include Axis agents. Some indecent attitudes, and then the inability of decent people to believe the reality of unbelievable indecency, prevented America from doing more than it did with its heroic World War II exertions and sacrifices. “The U.S. and the Holocaust” is an immersion in the limitations that accompany, and define, tragedy.

Source: Washington Post September 17, 2022 16:09 UTC