Advocate for the Doomed

by McDonald, James G.

• ISBN13: 9780253348623
• ISBN10: 0253348625
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-30
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

The private diary of James G. McDonald (1886-1964) offers a unique and hitherto unknown source on the early history of the Nazi regime and the Roosevelt administration's reactions to Nazi persecution of German Jews. Considered for the post of U.S. ambassador to Germany at the start of the FDR's presidency, McDonald travelled to Germany in 1932 and met with Hitler soon after the Nazis came to power. Fearing Nazi intentions to remove or destroy Jews in Germany, in 1933 he became League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and sought aid from the international community to resettle outside the Reich Jews and others persecuted there. In late 1935 he resigned in protest at the lack of support for his work.This is the eagerly awaited first of a projected three-volume work that will significantly revise the ways that scholars and the world view the antecedents of the Holocaust, the Shoah itself, and its aftermath.

Author Biography

Richard Breitman is Professor of History at American University. His books include The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution and (with Alan Kraut) American Refugee Policy and European Jewry, 1933--1945(IUP, 1988). He is editor of the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

Barbara McDonald Stewart has taught at George Mason University and is author of United States Government Policy on Refugees from Nazism, 1933--1940. She lives in Vienna, Virginia.

Severin Hochberg is a historian at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Young Man from Indiana

Foreshadowing: Summer-Fall 1932

The Nazi Revolution: Winter 1932-Spring 1933

American Reactions: Late April-May 1933

Alerting Others: June-August 1933

Lobbying for League Action: September 1933

High Commissioner: October 1933

A Bridge from Lausanne to Berlin: November 1933

Proposal for a Corporation: December 1933

Washington's Views: January 1934

Testing Germany/Family Crisis: February 1934

Raising Funds: March 1934

The "Jewish Question" in Europe: April 1934

Emigration Options?: May 1934

Turn for the Worse: June 1934

Visit to the Saar: July 1934

The League Keeps its Distance: August 1934

The Climate in Geneva: September 1934

Criticism is Easy: October 1934

Grand Tour: November 1934

Home Leave: December 1934

The Catholic Connection: January 1935

A Diplomatic Maneuver: February 1935

Brazil: March 1935

South American Survey: April 1935

Regret and Relief: May 1935

Downsizing: June 1935

Liquidation Plans: July 1935

Conclusion

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