Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the President of the United States during the time of World War II and the Holocaust. Although leading the front lines of the Allied forces, he never seriously addressed the plight of the Jews being murdered under Hitler’s regime. His reasons for avoiding this issue are largely unknown, especially since news of Hitler’s schemes had reached him as early as 1942. Roosevelt believed that the best way to liberate the Jews in Germany was to defeat Germany itself; therefore, he turned a deaf ear to many requests for direct aid to the Jews. One of the greatest petitions he denied was to allow Jewish children to take refuge in the United States at the time Britain was undertaking the Kindertransport. Some historians consider his unwillingness to give aid and shelter to the Jews in Europe as one of the greatest mistakes of his presidency.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt. (Oil painting).