Wyman’s book, The Abandonment of the Jews was very intriguing to me. Although I found it very thorough it left me wanting to know how something this horrible could have been allowed to happen. Although Wyman does discuss why more was not done, I am still horrified that this was allowed to happen. Wyman proves that the US should and could have done more to help the dying Jews.

I found a reoccurring theme to be that a large problem was that Jewish people had nowhere to go. No one wanted them.

The book begins by giving a brief background into the setting of America at the onset of the war. It details an anti-Semitic America. It also explains most of the anti-Semitism as passive, which ordinarily would do little harm, but during a holocaust crisis became a reason for America’s inaction.

The book then jumps right into the emergence of information that

This report and the ones to follow were hard to believe. The state departments skepticism kept the news from reaching the media for several months. They were convinced that the deportations were for slave labor even though this explanation has huge flaws. As more reports of the mass murders developed they were finally confirmed, 17 months after the first killing began.

The corpse of a people lies on the steps of civilization. Behold it. Here it is! And no voice is heard to cry halt to the slaughter, no government speaks to bid the murder of human millions end(pp91).

Wyman addresses the question of weather the Auschwitz gas chambers could have been bombed. His conclusion is that this was very possible.

The State Department also provided huge barriers hindering refugees from obtaining visas. The process included written tests and screening to check for espionage. The process on average would take 9 months, which could not be expedited if there was immediate danger. These strict guidelines insured that the small quotas were never full. The quotas were mandated by the law but the restrictions were the work of the State Department. In 1942 only 19.2% of the quota was fulfilled and this percent continued to drop. In 1945 only 7.9% of the already small quota was filled.

Wyman discusses how the government set restrictions so that even the small quotas could not be fulfilled. The Intergovernmental committee on Refugees was used to cover allied inaction. One of its leaders actually said, “We hope to operate as little as possible.” “There is very little that can be done with regard to rescue,” was his explanation. I do not see how a committee on refugees would hope to operate as little as possible during the holocaust. Other committees were established such as the Emergency Committee but very little was ever accomplished.

For the most part Jewish newspapers printed more information than non-Jewish newspapers, although still not adequately. In Noember1942 the Jewish Frontier’s paper with black borders, informed of the “systematic murder of innocent civilians”. It closed with a call to, “do whatever may be done to prevent the fulfillment of this horror.” This very vague call to action represented the way things were at this time.

The sad fact is that during the time when humanity needed our help the most we let red tape, fear and greed keep us from helping. Wyman suggests many options that were available to help that would not have harmed our military effort yet we refused to try. We are now stuck with this burden of not knowing. Unfortunately they were not American nor were they British. Even worse they were not only foreigners but also Jews. Wyman suggests this is a huge reason why we were not willing to save them. After reading this book the conclusion to a pageant meant to inform Americans of the Nazi atrocities has stuck with me.

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