Thursday, July 07, 2011
Staying out of it
A question I always had regarding Hitler was how did the United States let this happen. It's not like he suddenly came to power and wreaked unsuspected havoc in Europe. His ascension was years in the making and his goals of conquest and genocide were fairly transparent. I had always heard the stuff about the U.S. being war-shy after WWI and the whole isolationist vs. interventionist argument, but Larson's account of our diplomatic relations with Germany is the first time I really had a firm grasp of precisely how the U.S. let this happen, including a horrifying and cowardly indifference to the fate of Europe's Jews. Not really a question. Just an observation, if you have thoughts.
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2 comments:
Great point. I had always wondered the same thing. This was the first time I'd heard, too, of the outstanding German debt to the U.S. and how THAT was the big issue to the U.S. government, not German military aggression or oppression of Jews.
The attitude toward the treatment of Jews was horrifying, yes. I was surprised to see how widespread the antisemitism was among thinking people.
We're viewing all this in hindsight, of course, which made me think of how much politics/culture/attitudes have changed since World War II. It seems like such a turning point for the world, even 70 years later.
Yes, good point about the debt being such an issue. That's not something you hear about in history class. (And the debt in question seems so trivial compared with debt figures today.)
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