An unwanted burden
American Jews and the Holocaust: Part 6
This is part 6 of an ongoing series. Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5.
Several trends impacted the way American Jewish communities received the refugees who came to settle in the United States. In the past, aspiring immigrants could only migrate to America if they were sponsored by a relative, who would be responsible for their welfare and for assuring that they did not become dependent on the state. For the first time in the postwar years, agencies were permitted to act as sponsors. While this allowed many Jews to immigrate who otherwise may not have been able to, it ultimately “also absolved many American Jews from supporting their European relatives,” in Beth B. Cohen’s words.
In addition, the well-established American Jewish community’s old fears bubbled up to the surface. Their conditional acceptance as Americans had been hard won after generations of acculturation, hard work, and assimilation. They had further proved their allegiance to the country by sending their sons to fight the war in American uniforms. A new wave of immigrants, who largely hailed from Eastern Europe and may have been more religious or identifiably foreign-looking than the established American community, could spark a newly fired antisemitism in the country. Based on these arguably well-founded fears, Cohen questions: “Should it be a surprise that many second-generation American Jewish hosts viewed the thousands of Eastern European newcomers with a discomfort that took precedence over sympathy?” The overall trend was that the American Jewish community viewed European refugee immigrants more as a burden than a welcome addition.
Another frustrating and yet crucial trend is that American Jewish organizations that dealt with and aided refugees, as well as the individuals who led them with varying degrees of finesse and success, tended not to take into account the survivors’ traumatic individual experiences, but rather tried to apply generic blanket goals to all the refugees as a group. A notable example was the organizations’ main yardstick for measuring success with their refugee cases: their overarching goal was to get refugees out into the workforce, independent, and self-supporting as quickly as possible. They did not deal with the refugees’ emotional needs or issues, and often they did not aid refugees in gaining work for which they were qualified, encouraging them to take whatever menial job was available.
In certain cases, organizations were more concerned with filling their own occupational needs than with aiding the refugees. Dr. Alfred Neumann was the executive director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) in Denver, Colorado. A letter he sent to the United Service for New Americans in 1949 demonstrates his lack of enthusiasm for the part of his job that entailed aiding the refugees who were sent to Denver to settle. In response to whether Denver could or would accept an immigrant who had been employed as a knitter, Dr. Neumann complained, “We have received one unit of this type some months ago, and this gentleman is still unemployed and very much a problem. Second, will you kindly check with the enclosed list of major occupations as to what type of resettlement units are desirable in Denver and the region which Denver supplies with resettlement units.”
For Dr. Neumann, the new immigrants as “units,” a strikingly dehumanizing term to refer to any human being. The dehumanization is especially chilling considering the experience of these refugees. The Nazi machine had started out by dehumanizing them, stripped away their rights, stolen their homes, and murdered their families. Now as new immigrants, they sought the aid of fellow Jews in establishing new lives for themselves in America. But for Dr. Neumann, the resettlement program was not an opportunity to aid poor refugees in need of work and assistance, but rather a chance to fill the job vacancies that suited the Denver community. This view considered the immigrants not as human beings, but only as “units” who would preferably fill specific occupations and adjust nicely and quietly into their new communities. Cohen summarizes the general attitude of organizations tasked with placing refugees in employment: “The emphasis was on the practical. It was placed squarely on the vocational skills of the newcomer rather than on any reward gained from helping a refugee.”
This is part 6 of a series. Stay tuned for the next installment.