SEVEN TIMES STRONGER
a guest post by Mr. Cohen
Popular concern for Europe’s Jews could not develop without wide-spread knowledge of what was happening to them. But the information gap, though extremely important, was not the only limiting factor.
a guest post by Mr. Cohen
Popular concern for Europe’s Jews could not develop without wide-spread knowledge of what was happening to them. But the information gap, though extremely important, was not the only limiting factor.
Strong currents of anti-Semitism and nativism in American society also diminished the possibilities for a sympathetic response. A quieter, more prevalent prejudice, a “passive anti-Semitism,” was another major barrier to the growth of concern.
It was reflected in opinion surveys taken by the [USA] Office of War Information.
They showed that the impact of atrocity information on the average American was seven times strongerwhen it involved atrocities-in-general, than when it referred specifically to atrocities against Jews.
SOURCE:The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945
(chapter 16, page 327) by David S. Wyman, year 1984, Pantheon Books, New York, ISBN: 9780394428130, 0394428137, 9780394740775, 0394740777.