Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust [Hardcover]

Robert N. Rosen (Author), Alan M. Dershowitz (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 2006

Saving the Jews is a rigorously researched narrative and interpretive history of how FDR and his administration dealt with the Nazi persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust, 1933-1945. It disputes the generally accepted view that Roosevelt abandoned the Jews of Europe and that America was a passive, callous bystander to the Holocaust, and reveals the true story.

The author has conducted new research that explains how the Roosevelt administration and American Jewry saved the passengers on the S.S. St. Louis; how American Jews (and the Jews of Palestine) opposed the bombing of Auschwitz and never asked Roosevelt to bomb the camps; how America and other western democracies saved over seventy percent of German Jewry from Hitler; how Rauol Wallenberg was sent to save Jews by the American government. The research done on this book has found no credible evidence that FDR was an anti-Semite but found that Roosevelt was personally close to many Jews. FDR secretly developed the strategy for the Wagners-Rogers Bill (allowing 20,000 German Jewish children to enter the U.S. in 1938, 1939). Yet most historians continue to accuse him of failing to support the bill.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Was FDR an indifferent or possibly anti-Semitic president who abandoned European Jews, or was he a pragmatic leader who understood that the key to saving the Jews was winning WWII as swiftly as possible? This bloated, repetitious volume reads like one long apology as it takes on the so-called "revisionist" historians who question FDR's good will; it concludes that he should be "honored for [his] actions during World War II, not defamed." According to Rosen (The Jewish Confederates), FDR may have told ethnic jokes about Jews, but he also surrounded himself with Jewish friends and advisers like Henry Morgenthau Jr. FDR didn't have the political clout to change American immigration laws, and two-thirds of the refugees on the SS St. Louis, who were refused entry to the U.S. in 1939, are believed to have survived the war. Roosevelt probably didn't know about requests by various Jewish leaders to bomb Auschwitz, an action that, Rosen says would have killed Anne Frank and other innocents. Although Rosen is able to debunk some of the more overheated claims put forth four decades ago by Arthur Morse in While Six Million Died, his often simplistic arguments don't undo landmark works like David Wyman's The Abandonment of the Jews. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

What was once a controversial, revisionist view of the U.S. role in the Holocaust has recently achieved disturbingly wide acceptance. That view asserts that the Roosevelt administration, including FDR himself, was indifferent to the fate of European Jewry, motivated by crass political concerns or even outright anti-Semitism. Rosen has written a passionate, well-researched, and convincing response. The most troubling accusation, that of anti-Semitism, is refuted by the unprecedented participation of Jews in the upper echelons of the Roosevelt administration, as well as Roosevelt's personally warm relations with many Jews. Roosevelt had spoken out forcefully about Nazi persecution of the Jews since the late 1930s, and with the death camps in full operation, he made it clear that Nazi leaders would be held accountable. Rosen also deals effectively with other controversial actions, including the refusal to bomb railroad lines leading to the death camps. This strong, counterrevisionist work will not end the debate, but it will help balance the scales. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press; First Edition, First Printing edition (March 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560257784
• ISBN-13: 978-1560257783
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #627,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting history right, March 13, 2006

By 

M. S. Cohen (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust (Hardcover)

This book is both an enormously engrossing read and a well-argued and researched correction of history. The correction is necessary because of "revisionist" historians who have claimed that FDR was not only anti-Semitic, but failed to take actions that could easily have saved countless Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Rosen combines a careful look at the facts, including previously unexamined original documents, with incisive analysis and common sense, to to conclude that the truth is just the contrary. FDR's efforts to protect Jewish lives and rights were genuine, often proactive, and almost always as much or more as could reasonably be expected within daunting military and political constraints. Rosen's attitude toward FDR is not worshipful, but by giving us a richer understanding of the historical context, he heightens appreciation of Roosevelt's character and of what Roosevelt did accomplish. The book may also serve a more general purpose: It is an antidote to the paranoia caused by both historians and pundits who apply perfectionist standards to events viewed in hindsight. Equally important, it is a great story very well told.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, But a Very Good Place to Start, May 21, 2009

By 

Uncle Connie "Uncle Connie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust (Paperback)

There has long been a myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt in effect ignored the Jews of Europe in 1933-45 when in fact he might well have saved most of them. Older books that treat with the topic have developed this myth to the point that it has become a "popular fact," along with the one about knowing in advance about Pearl Harbor, or giving Eastern Europe away to Stalin without a fight. FDR was hardly perfect and had some serious failures mixed with his monumental successes; but the "popular facts" mentioned above are blatant rubbish, and in the case of the salvation of the Jews, Robert N. Rosen has made a major contribution to the debunking process. (Fortunately, newer general biographies of FDR - e.g. those by Jean Arthur Smith and Conrad Black (both very much worth reading) - are no longer repeating these shabby legends, but they persist nonetheless.)

Rosen's is primarily a scholarly approach: Citations abound and the references used comprise a formidable list indeed. And on that basis alone this is a magnificent first encounter with its topic, especially for one who has the interest and resources to pursue the matter further via the bibliographic material. Though not particularly even-handed in its treatment, Rosen's book nevertheless is very clear when it comes to what Roosevelt tried to do, what he in fact achieved and what he didn't, and in each case why things went as they did. And Rosen is not above faulting FDR in matters where Rosen feels there is fault, though he hardly belabors these elements (as he does in a few cases of the opposite assessment).

But the book is not overly well written for general reading; the style is abrupt, sometimes fairly mechanical, occasionally repetitious, and too often a bit awkward when viewed primarily from a literary vantage. In short, Rosen is a brilliant scholar and a magnificent researcher; he is not however a terribly good writer. (Lord Black has somewhat the same problem in his monumental biography, but not even remotely on the same level.)

In addition there are a few proof-reading lapses that it would be well to fix, lest readers who know better confuse errors of minutiae with errors of real substance. As examples, Governor Herbert Lehman was not "Herman" (p.21); Vice-President John Nance Garner was not "James" (p.135); and Robert H. Jackson was not one of the judges at the Nuremberg Tribunal, he was the chief prosecutor (p.206).

In summary, Rosen's book is a superb treatment of its topic in terms of depth of fact and support for the material, and in solidly-researched debunking of persistent myths that really ought never to have been allowed to grow in the first place. Rosen's work could, however, do with a bit of touch-up in places, and perhaps a bit of help with the mechanics of narrative would have made it a smoother read for the non-scholar.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars finally, a second look at FDR's policies, March 6, 2008

By 

W. Gregg - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust (Paperback)

We have heard the criticisms of FDR's policy towards the holocaust all too often over the last several decades. They have ranged from benign neglect on his part, to near complicity. This has left many people, myself included, with an uncomfortable feeling about FDR for many years. I'm halfway through Robert Rosen's book, and I now think FDR completely undeserving of the negative comments of other authors on this matter. In fact, I feel as if I've been seriously mislead by previous authors, who seem to have been out to make a quick buck by stirring up negative controversy. Rosen's book contains numerous examples of how previous authors misrepresented events regarding U. S. immigration policy, and the plight of Jewish refugees from the Third Reich. Although it's a worthwhile read, the editing of the book is a bit choppy, with some repetition in different sections. The subject is very important, and I hope it gets discussed on Book TV. I discovered Rosen's book while ordering some of Gerhard Weinberg's books on World War II. If you haven't read Weinberg's stuff, and you're a WWII buff, be prepared for some real surprises, and lots of myth debunking.