Amerika und der Holocaust

Surveys the relations between fascist antisemitic organizations in the U.S. and American entrepreneurs (e.g. Ford and DuPont), and the relations of both these groups with German Nazism. Many American firms invested in Germany and maintained their investments during the Nazi regime and after the start of World War II, thus helping to finance and equip the Nazi war machine. Some, such as Ford, admired the Nazis, especially their antisemitic policy. The German branches of Ford and General Motors employed slave labor - in occupied Poland, Jewish slave labor. Widespread antisemitism in the U.S. led to the obstruction of visa applications by Jews and to caution on the part of American Jews not to make too great an outcry over the Holocaust. The "New York Times" and other papers reported scantily about the deportation and massacre of Jews, and Jewish producers in Hollywood made no films on the Holocaust. American intelligence knew from summer 1941 about the activities of the Einsatzgruppen, and soon after that about the extermination camps, but rejected pleas to save the victims as risky to the war effort. After the war Jewish DPs were humiliated and mistreated by high-ranking American army officers. American intelligence spirited away some of the worst war criminals to work for the U.S. Treasures taken by the Nazis from occupied nations and from Jewish victims were confiscated by the army; very little was ever restored to the rightful owners or their heirs. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)