On November 9, 1938, the sounds of breaking glass filled the air throughout Germany and parts of Austria while fires devoured synagogues and Jewish institutions.Â
In 1944, more than 17 months after news of Hitler's plan to annihilate Europe's Jews reached the U.S., President Roosevelt issued an executive order that established the War Refugee Board.
In Poland, the Nazis moved to liquidate the Warsaw ghetto. In a desperate last stand, the remaining Jewish inhabitants began a hopeless month-long battle against them.
Wise was a leading figure in more than a dozen Jewish organizations, and was probably the most influential and well-respected American Jew of his generation.
During the Holocaust, the U.S. State Department official in charge of matters concerning European refugees was Breckinridge Long, an extreme nativist with a particular suspicion of Eastern Europeans.
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and his staff at the Treasury played a key role in President Roosevelt's decision to set up an agency charged with rescuing Europe's Jews.Â
In 1944, Raoul Wallenberg, a businessman and a member of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, volunteered to go to Budapest to help save Hungarian Jews.
Will Rogers, Jr. was one of the most active agitators on Capitol Hill in favor of U.S. efforts to rescue the Jews in Europe. And what he achieved really made a difference
