The skanner., November 24, 2015, Page 9, Image 9

November 24, 2015 The Skanner Page 9
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Refugee Refusal Today Compared, Contrasted to That of WWII
Historians, policymakers call parallels ‘chilling’
AP PHOTO/CAROLYN THOMPSON
the Jewish refugees and that they would pressure the
Jews, particularly those whose families were still in
Germany, to act as agents on behalf of the Third Re-
ich,” Lichtman said.
“Those arguments are chillingly similar to the ar-
guments being made against the admission of the
Syrian refugees.”
Lichtman isn’t alone in making the comparison.
On Monday, an Ohio professor, Peter Shulman of
Case Western Reserve University, used Twitter to
post results from a 1938 public opinion poll showing
Americans overwhelmingly rejected admission of
German Jews in the years leading up to the outbreak
of war.
Sol Messinger holds a book written about his voyage on the St.
Louis, a ship carrying more than 900 German Jewish refugees that
was turned away from Florida in 1939, at his home in Buffalo, N.Y.,
on Friday, Nov. 20, 2015. Messinger was just 7 when he stood with
his father at the rail of the ocean liner and stared into the gathering
darkness. But eight decades later, Messinger clearly recalls the lights
of Miami, glittering off the bow, so near to him and his fellow Jewish
refugees aboard, yet beyond their reach.
By ADAM GELLER
AP National Writer
S
ol Messinger was just seven when he stood
with his father at the rail of the ocean liner St.
Louis and stared into the gathering darkness.
But nearly eight decades later, Messinger still
recalls the lights of Miami glittering off the bow, so
near to him and more than 900 fellow Jewish refugees
aboard, yet beyond their reach.
Today, “I look out into the ocean and I get this quea-
sy feeling,” says Messinger, whose family escaped Eu-
rope for the U.S. three years after American officials
turned away the vessel in 1939. Now 83, he is a pathol-
ogist in Buffalo, New York. “The Jews did not pose any
threat to the U.S... It’s really unforgivable.”
Now, fresh angst about whether to admit refugees
or turn them away has put the spotlight back on
the shunning of the St. Louis and other decisions,
now widely regretted, by U.S. officials before and
during World War II.
“
When we sent Jews back
to Germany and when we
sent Japanese to internment
camps, we regretted it and
we will regret this as well
—Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois
A week after the Islamic State terrorist group killed
130 people in Paris, a backlash against the U.S. admit-
ting Syrian refugees — most of them Muslims — has
fueled a bitter debate, with politicians, pundits and
others drawing lines between present and past.
There are differences between now and then. But
disturbing similarities between the rhetoric of to-
day and the attitudes of the U.S. public and officials
during World War II make that history worth recall-
ing, scholars say, as the country confronts new fears
of terrorism.
“No historical parallel is perfect, obviously,” says
Allan Lichtman, co-author of FDR and the Jews and a
professor of history at American University.
But U.S. limits on refugees during World War II, in-
fluenced by anti-Semitism, were fed by fears the Na-
zis “would plant agents, spies and saboteurs among
The reaction “was instantaneous and totally over-
whelming. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced
before,” said Shulman, who was been posting histor-
ical tidbits for about two years. One of his tweets of
the decades-old polling data has been relayed 4,600
times, cited by commentators in The Washington
Post, Time and other publications.
“When we sent Jews back to Germany and when we
sent Japanese to internment camps, we regretted it
and we will regret this as well,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez,
D-Illinois, said before 47 House Democrats and 242
Republicans voted this week for a bill to put new se-
See Refugees on page 11