Washington DC’s Holocaust Memorial Museum opened a new exhibition titled “Americans and the Holocaust,” which examines the Americans’ responses to Nazism, war, and the persecution of Jews in Europe during the 1930s and ‘40s.
The exhibition dispels myths, such as the perception that Americans lacked real-time access to information about the persecution of Jews. It examines why their rescue never became a priority for the US government even as the country made great sacrifices to defeat Nazism.
“Visitors will be surprised at how much Americans knew about Nazism and the Holocaust and how early they knew it,” said exhibition curator Daniel Greene.
The exhibition presents public opinion polling from the era, includes new research and artifacts, chronicles how the US government responded to Nazism and Jewish persecution, and sheds light on how much information was available to Americans at the time.
Through an online crowdsourcing initiative, schools and individuals across the country helped build the largest online archive of American newspaper coverage of key events during the Holocaust.
Polls indicate that despite people’s knowledge of what was happening and sympathy for the Jews, most Americans opposed bringing in more of them.