What did the American Jews do?

(in order to rescue the German Jews)

This is a frequently asked question. Already in the second half of the 1930s, American Jews
were considered the most powerful Jews in the world. What could American Jews do? The
first thing that they did, right after January 1933, was the call for boycott of Nazi-Germany.
The immediate result of this call was the Nazi-Boycott of April 1933 on Jewish shops. The
Jewish call for boycott was not successful. There were also Jews in America who were
concerned about "causing more trouble for the Jews in Germany by unintelligent action"
(Proskauer), but mostly it was a failure, because American industrialists were more
interested in their business than in the German Jews. The most famous example is the Bush-
Thyssen-connection. Even Neo-Nazis, who hype to this day the "Jewish war on Germany,"
are not able to point at any success of it.

Another direction was the rescue of the Jews, bringing them out of Germany and settling
them in livable conditions. One of the most important figures on our tree in this story is
Friedrich (Frederick William) Borchardt (1901-1956), son of Isidor Borchardt (born in Jastrow
and author of "Die schwarze Chaje"). Friedrich was not an American citizen; he actually
emigrated only in April 1937. Before his emigration, he was the managing director of the
Reichsvertretung of the Jews in Germany, an institution that the Nazis built after coming to
power. The effort was not limited to bringing the Jews out, but to help them build a new
base for their lives. That was the purpose of his "Joint Distribution Committee." His mother
immigrated to the US via Japan and Cuba. His father's sister Sophie Behr died in
Theresienstadt.

Many family members of our tree, who emigrated long before 1933 and were American
citizens, tried later to rescue their cousins, who had remained in Germany. While almost 50
% of the Jews left Germany in the years 1933-1939, only 30.000 managed to escape after the
beginning of WWII. Yet even in 1941, it was still possible to emigrate from Germany to the
US. So did Fanny Liebhold, the couple Edelstein (who changed their names to Elston), Erika
Metzig born Borchardt (with husband and daughter), Irma Borchardt born Sommerfeld,
Hedda Heymann with her younger daughter Monica, and many others more. Hedda's older
daughter Viola had emigrated a few years earlier with the help of Louis E. Kirstein, probably
Hedda's second cousin. My great-grandmother's cousin, Selma Borchardt, had free access to
the White House. Officially, she was the head of the American teacher's union, but
unofficially, she worked directly for several US-presidents: Hoover, than Roosevelt, than
Truman. In November 1941, she transmitted documents for getting Visas for her cousin, my
great-grandmother's brother, to A. M. Warren, Chief of the Visa Division, whom she knew
very well, and who knew her very well. His answer was:

In reply, refer to VD 811.111 Sarason, Julius

DEPARTMENT OF STATE WASHINGTON

My dear Miss Borchardt:

December 16, 1941

I have your letter of November 26, 1941 transmitting documents prepared on behalf of Julius
and Frieda Sarason and Minna Pawel, residents of Germany, who desire to obtain
immigration visas.

Since there are no American consular visa services available in the territory in which Mr. and
Mrs. Sarason and Mrs. Pawel are now residing, it has not been possible for the Department
to give consideration to their cases.

In the event these aliens are able to proceed to some territory in which they may appear in
person at an American consulate for the purpose of making application for visas, the
Deportment, upon being furnished with some definite information in this respect, will give
further consideration to their cases.

Sincerely yours,

BUY Miss Selma M. Borchardt, Homer Building, Washington, D.C.

A. M. Warren Chief, Visa Division

His answer came a week after Pearl Harbor and the US-entry into WWII. Julius Sarason and
his wife died in Auschwitz.

Edwin Borchard, descendant of the Pinne-branch and long-time Professor at the Law School
of Yale University, tried to get his cousin Cilly Jacoby and her daughter out of Germany, but
failed. They died in Minsk.

Gertrud Freed (formerly Friedländer) tried to get her mother Margarethe Borchardt out, but
failed. Margarethe perished in Theresienstadt (Margarethe Borchardt née Pflaum was a
cousin of Betty Scholem, Gershom Scholem's mother).

Max Nussbaum, former Rabbi from Berlin, writes in his testimony to Yad Vashem on June 30,
1958: "During those days after the outbreak of war, the American Vice consul Warren was
the greatest misfortune for the Jews in Berlin. Inherently, emigration at that time was still
possible since the USA had not yet entered the war and the Germans still approved
applications. However, Warren sabotaged the whole emigration procedure and he is
responsible for the death of hundreds of Jews since he declined to issue an already granted
visa on the day it was needed for technical reasons. He postponed the issuance of the visa
with the result that in the meantime the candidate for emigration was deported into a
concentration camp." (from Wikipedia on Avra M. Warren)

However, the problem was not only Anti-Semitism, but also a fear from infiltration by Nazi-
spies. In our tree, we have perhaps the most famous expression of this fear: Paul Theodor
Borchardt, from the "ten tribes" of Jastrow, who served as a German spy during WWI, but
born as a Jew (in the meanwhile he converted to Christianity and to Islam…) he was
imprisoned in Dachau. Shortly afterwards, with the help of his former colleagues who served
now Hitler, he managed to escape to the UK and from there to the USA, where he was
sentenced to 20 years in prison as a Nazi-spy.

Two persons, who are not from our tree but who were very helpful, deserve to be
mentioned here. Isaiah Minkoff, Executive Secretary of the Jewish Labor Committee and
Executive Director of NJCRAC, sponsored the immigration of Curt Borchardt, cousin of
Martha Weiler, and his wife; and Cecilia Davidson Razovsky, director of the National Council
of Jewish Women sponsored the immigration of Grete Simon from our Rügenwalde-branch.
Grete could later bring also her sister and her mother to the US. These two persons, through
their organizations, and the JDC I wrote about in the beginning, were the main powers
behind the rescue of thousands of Jews and many dozens of families in our tree.

A third thing that American Jews did: They fought with the American army against the Nazis
in order to liberate Europe. We have a big number of veterans on the tree, some of them
were still born in Germany and not many years in America, some joined the army in rather
old age for this purpose. One of the veterans lives very near to me, in Kibbuts Hazorea: Herb
Mautner, from our Bernburg-branch, born 1923, take part in the D-day-operation in
Normandy. He was wounded there, what perhaps kept him alive till today. (He did, by the
way, a great job in the genealogical reprocessing of this Bernburg-branch!) Another one is
Frederic Keffer, from our Munter-branch, who was the head of the Physics Department of
the University of Pittsburgh. The prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp were
liberated by a detachment of troops belonging to the US 9th Armored Infantry Battalion,
under his leadership. These are only two example, out of many many others on our tree.

So, what's the conclusion? Did the Borchardt-descendants on our tree, who were Americans
already before 1933 or came to the USA during the thirties, enough, for rescuing their family
members who were left behind in the trap?

You are the judge.