America Views the Holocaust

Were Americans heroic liberators of Nazi concentration camp victims at the end of World War II, or were they knowing and apathetic bystanders of unspeakable brutality and annihilation? This question has long haunted historians, who hotly debate what the United States knew about Hitler's gruesome Final Solution, when they knew it, and whether they should have intervened sooner.

Wrapping historical narrative around 60 primary sources--including news clippings, speeches, letters, magazine articles, and government reports--this volume's three part organization chronicles what was unfolding in Nazi Germany through the lens of American reporters and writers, traces the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the US as well as its increasingly tight immigration policies, and then reveals Americans' horror upon the realization that the reports and stories of the Holocaust were not exaggerations or fabrications. An epilogue examines the complexity of historical interpretations and moral judgments that have evolved since 1945.

Pub. Date: January 1999
Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
Author : Robert H. Abzug
Series: The Bedford Series in History and Culture
ISBN-13: 9780312133931
ISBN: 0312133936

Editorial Reviews - America Views the Holocaust, 1933-1945

Presents a selection of original documents, including letters from Germany, journalistic accounts, diary entries, and other documents that illustrate the varied reactions of Americans as they witnessed the Holocaust. Documents are divided into three sections: the first years of the Nazi regime (1933-1935); exclusion, emigration, and war (1935-1941); and the development of popular American awareness (1942-1945). Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Meet the author

Robert H. Abzug is Professor of History and American Studies and Director of Liberal Arts Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin.