That the US government took no action has been explained in terms of both
existing anti-Semitism and practical military matters. Some historians, such as
Deborah Lipstadt, have noted the high level of American anti-Semitism during
the war. According to a July 1942 census, 44 percent of Americans thought
Jews had too much power and influence; a July 1944 census reported that
44 percent of Americans regarded Jews as a threat to America. Other historians,
such as David Wyman, noted the presence and influence of anti-Semitic State
Department officials. Raised in neighborhoods and schooled in institutions that
excluded Jews, these men, while not countenancing genocide, de-prioritized
the need to save Jews in their recommendations to President Roosevelt.
Other historians have noted the difficulty of aiding Jews through military
action. In order to incapacitate a railroad line, it would have been necessary to
bomb and destroy it repeatedly. In addition, bombing the camps might well
have killed or wounded thousands of Jews. In the end, like American Jews,
government officials from President Roosevelt down through the ranks of the
State Department believed that defeating Hitler took priority, and was also
the best way to help Jews under Nazi rule.
Non-Jewish bystanders in Europe, too, could, in retrospect, have aided
Jews far more than they did, to say the least. There is no question that the
Nazis could not have carried out this plan without the support of local col-
laborators, whom they found in every country, without exception. Most
non-Jews, however, neither resisted nor collaborated with the Nazis, but
remained bystanders. In some cases, this inaction was due to a preexisting
animosity or indifference toward Jews. More frequent was a fear of reprisal
and the possibility of material gain by expropriating Jewish property and
homes; the latter was especially true in Poland and Hungary.
These were powerful considerations for ordinary people. Thus, it is
remarkable that, despite dire consequences, there were non-Jews who helped
Jews. Most famous among these righteous Gentiles was Raoul Wallenberg
(1912–?). Born into a famous Swedish family of bankers, industrialists, and
diplomats, Wallenberg studied architecture at the University of Michigan
(where a plaque in front of a local preschool still honors him) and graduated
in 1931 with honors, winning an award for outstanding academic achieve-
ment. After graduating, he visited Haifa, in 1935–6, where he met Jewish
refugees from Nazi Germany. Upon returning to Sweden, he became an
importer and exporter, working closely with a Hungarian Jew, Koloman
Lauer. While running their joint venture, the Mid-European Trading
Company, Wallenberg traveled through Nazi-occupied Europe, in the process
learning how to handle German bureaucrats.
During the war, he entered the Swedish diplomatic corps, and was
assigned as a Swedish emissary to Budapest. There, in 1944, he used his con-
nections and diplomatic skills to save 30,000 Hungarian Jews. At the close of
the war, he was captured by the Soviet army, arrested as a collaborator, and
never heard from again. As late as 1975, he was rumored to be alive in a
228 From renewal to devastation, 1914–45