1944

  CHAPTER 15

  The day before his inauguration: For these paragraphs see Franklin D. Roosevelt, Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944–45 (Harper, 1950), 523; Samuel Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt (Harper, 1952), 516; and James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940–1945 (Harcourt, 1970), 558–63, from which this account is drawn. Interestingly, after the ceremony Roosevelt held the largest luncheon of his twelve years in the White House: two thousand guests. For “a stabbing pain” and “thoroughly chilled” (a symbolic omen of what was to come), see James Roosevelt and Sydney Schalett, Affectionately FDR (Harcourt Brace, 1959), 355; and Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time (Simon & Schuster, 1994), 572–73. On the large luncheon, Bess Furman, Washington By-Line (Knopf, 1949), 3. On Japanese Americans’ internment, Roger Daniels, Concentration Camps USA: Japanese-Americans and World War II (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970); Allen Bosworth, America’s Concentration Camps (Norton, 1967); Gordon Corrigan, The Second World War: A Military History (Thomas Dunne, 2011) 538; Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh, A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel (Harper Perennial, 2010), 1. See also Bertram Hulen, “Shivering Thousands Stamp in Snow at Inauguration,” New York Times, January 21, 1945, 1.

  worse place to meet than Yalta: On the preparations for Yalta and opening of the summit, see H. W. Brands, Traitor to His Class (Doubleday, 2008), 592; Sara Churchill, A Thread in the Tapestry (Dodd, Mead, 1967), 76, 79–80; Charles Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969 (Norton, 1973), 174; Jean Edward Smith, 629–30; Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press, 1998), FDR (Random House, 2008), 507–21.

  “terrible change”: On Roosevelt’s declining health, Frances Perkins found him “looking very badly,” although Bohlen insisted that “our leader was ill, but he was effective.” See Bohlen, Witness, 177–84; Smith, FDR, 630–31; Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 519.

  Roosevelt’s maneuverings with Stalin: He mentioned that de Gaulle compared himself to Joan of Arc; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 566.

  he was a Zionist: Ibid., 577–78; Bohlen, Witness, 203; Radosh and Radosh, Safe Haven, 11, 25, Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman, FDR and the Jews (Belknap Press, 2013), 301; Bohlen, 203.

  what was to become of Poland: Supporters insist Roosevelt did all that could be done, while critics assert that he sold the Poles out; see Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 514–15. For a very incisive account that is harshly critical of Roosevelt, see Amos Perlmutter, FDR and Stalin: A Not So Grand Alliance, 1943–1945 (University of Missouri Press, 1993); see also Jonathan Fenby, Alliance: The Inside Story of How Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill Won One War and Began Another (MacAdam/Cage, 2007). Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 597, notes that after Yalta, relations between Stalin and Roosevelt reached a “point of crisis” because of the deteriorating situation in Poland. Stalin promptly violated his solemn promise that the Communist regime in Warsaw would hold free elections as well as broaden its base; instead, the Communists held on to power and took over, laying the groundwork for the Cold War.

  Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia: For details of the meeting, see especially “U.S. Warship Becomes Arab Court in Miniature for Ibn Saud’s Voyage,” New York Times, February 21, 1945, 1; “White House Announcement of New Talks,” New York Times, February 21, 1945; William Eddy, FDR Meets Ibn Saud (American Friends of the Middle East, 1954), 31–32; Bohlen, Witness, 203–4, who basically recounts the meeting word-by-word, which stands as the basis for all other accounts; Breitmann and Lichtman, 302; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom 578–79; Radosh and Radosh, Safe Haven, 19, 26–27. Harry Hopkins, the president’s adviser, was unwell, but nonetheless would later write that he felt the president had not fully comprehended what Ibn Saud was saying, particularly the fact that the Arabs would take up arms against the Jews almost no matter what.

  At Bergen-Belsen: For Bergen-Belsen and the Frank family, see, for instance, Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust (Norton, 2012), 784–92; and Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl (Longman, 1993).

  “We cannot fail them again”: For the joint session, MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 581–82; Smith, FDR, 632–33; and the candid observations of William Hassett, Off the Record with FDR (Rutgers University Press, 1998), 318.

  “powers of concentration”: On Roosevelt’s sharp decline, see especially Hassett, Off the Record, 319–29; and Bohlen, Witness, 206.

  Ohrdruf: On the liberation of Ohrdruf, a subcamp at Buchenwald, see, for instance, the first-person account by David Cohen, Jewish Virtual Library, online; and American Centuries, University of Massachusetts, oral history. Cohen was a radio operator with the Fourth Armored Division. Meanwhile, General Eisenhower, not prone to overstatement, called “the barbarous” treatment of the Jews “unbelievable.” And he summoned members of Congress to become spokesmen to the world for the horror rendered by the Nazis. For his part, General Patton screamed, “See what these bastards did!” See also War History Online, Liberation of Ohrdruf; Gilbert, The Holocaust, 790–92.

  “that’s all we thought about”: Elie Wiesel, Night (Hill and Wang, 2006), 115.

  “much better”: For Roosevelt’s death, Smith, FDR, 635–36; Brands, Traitor to His Class 605–7; Goodwin, 602–3; Hassett, Off the Record, 332–37. Hassett was quite poetic about Roosevelt’s passing, essentially making the point that everyone saw it coming, but nobody was really ready for it.

  collapsed “as they walked” and “I saw their corpses”: Gilbert, The Holocaust, 790–96.

  “Just the sight”: J. D. Pletcher, “The Americans Have Come—at Last!” in The 71st Came . . . to Gunskirchen, Witness to the Holocaust Publication Series, no. 1 (Emory University, 1979), 4–11; and reprint in Robert H. Abzug, America Views the Holocaust (St. Martin’s, 1999), especially 195–96.

  funeral wreaths: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, especially 613–15, is particularly moving; for her assessment of Roosevelt, see 606–11. For “There was much rushing,” see Robert Jackson, The Man: An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin Roosevelt (Oxford University Press, 2003), 167.

  “You can’t be Jews”: For this marvelous quote, originally in German, see Roger Moorhouse, Berlin at War (Basic Books, 2010), 306.

  A weary Abraham Lincoln: For comparison with Lincoln, see Jay Winik, April 1865 (Harper Collins, 2001), 247–49; Alan Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (Simon & Schuster, 2006).

  Estimates of war dead: Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh, A Safe Haven (Harper Perennial, 2009), 2; Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (Penguin Press, 2005, 17–18.

  “How much his passing”: Jackson, The Man, 169, 158.

  “He was one”: Isaiah Berlin, Personal Safe Impressions, Henry Handy, ed. (Viking, 1981), 26. For other assessments of Roosevelt, see the following. New York Times, April 13, 1945, 18: “It was his leadership which inspired freemen in every part of the world to fight with greater hope and courage.” Brands, Traitor to His Class, 613–14. Eric Larrabee, Commander-in-Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War (Harper and Row, 1987), 644; Larrabee writes that Roosevelt’s conduct as commander in chief “bears the mark of greatness.” William Leuchtenberg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal (Harper and Row, 1963), 327; Leuchtenberg writes that under Roosevelt “the White House became the focus of all government—the Fountainhead of ideas, the initiator of action, the representative of the national interest. [He] re-created the modern presidency.” Roosevelt himself once said, “I am like a cat. I make a quick stroke and then I relax”; here, perhaps, was one secret of his greatness. See also James MacGregor Burns, Leadership (Harper and Row, 1978), 281.

  “his enormous popularity”: Bohlen, Witness, 210.

  INDEX

  A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that c
orresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

  Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

  Abandonment of the Jews, The (Wyman), 576n

  Abruzzi, German raid in, 398

  Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, 361

  Acheson, Dean, 320, 423, 519

  Africa, Jewish refuge in, 385–86, 406

  Afrika Corps, 275, 324, 334

  Agudas Israel World Organization, 449

  airfields, in Italy, 393, 398, 452, 469, 470

  air force, British, see Royal Air Force, British

  Air Force, U.S., 51, 431, 452–53

  Air Ministry, British, 458

  Akzin, Benjamin, 452, 454–55, 469, 592n, 594n

  Albania, 268, 463

  Albany, N.Y., 32, 33

  Alexandria, 276, 355, 516

  Alex Zink Felt Factory, 101

  Algeria, 268, 277, 338, 340, 341

  Algiers, 338, 340, 341, 517

  Algiers conference (1943), 391

  Allach, 505

  Allenwood, 29–30

  Alps, 64, 176, 178, 357, 393, 518

  Ambrose, Stephen, 551n, 554n, 563n, 564n, 568n

  America First Committee, 233, 244

  American Agriculturist, 421–22

  American Civil Liberties Union, 590n

  American Jews, 269, 299, 301, 309–21, 388, 417, 513, 577n

  rescue efforts of, 407

  Riegner Telegram and, 306, 308

  Amiens prison, 461–63, 469

  Amsterdam, 201–3, 484

  Anaconda Copper Mining Company, 282

  Andersen, Hans Christian, 114

  Anne Frank House and Museum, 566n

  Anthony, George, 529

  anti-Nazi demonstrations, 313

  anti-Semitism, 33, 148, 209–21, 359, 387

  Arabs and, 516

  in Auschwitz (town), 92–93

  history of Nazi, 209–14, 219

  Hitler’s development of, 210–14, 220

  Riegner’s experience of, 303

  in Soviet Union, 257

  in U.S., 218, 220, 223, 225–26, 227, 230, 232, 332, 415, 419, 423, 435

  in Vienna, 362, 364, 581n

  see also Auschwitz; Final Solution; Holocaust

  Anzio, 179, 434

  appeasement, 47, 241, 342–43

  Arabs, 406, 516, 585n, 600n

  Ardennes, 468, 496, 500–502, 501, 509

  aristocracy, 284, 369, 480

  Armenians, 420, 588n

  army, British:

  in Greece, 245–46

  see also specific generals and troops

  army, French, 49, 50, 125, 339

  army, German, 242, 255, 257, 263, 324, 355, 374, 530

  Hitler in, 364–66

  increase in size of, 372

  Stalin’s cutting in two of, 352

  army, Italian, 396, 398

  army, Slovak, 154

  army, Soviet, see Red Army

  army, U.S., 36, 51, 349, 411

  in Battle of the Bulge, 500–502, 501

  intelligence of, 446

  Torch and, 338–41, 344, 356–57

  Army Corps of Engineers, 411

  Arnold, Hap, 192–93

  Arrow Cross, 459

  Aryan race, 114, 116, 205, 213, 266, 291, 325, 364, 366, 390

  Associated Press (AP), 175, 190, 479, 596n

  Atherton, Ray, 318

  Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic theater, 196, 245, 247, 248, 276, 500

  Torch and, 340, 341, 352

  Atlantic Wall, 83, 157, 158, 184, 190, 200, 555n

  atomic bomb, 410–13, 509, 531, 585n

  Augusta, USS, 188

  Auschwitz (concentration camp), 91–137, 169–73, 387, 404, 434, 460, 494–500, 514, 556n–57n

  Anglo-American warning about, 498–99

  arrival at, 93–95

  barracks at, 107, 110, 123, 125, 126, 132, 155

  beautification of, 113

  benefiting from the dead at, 100–102, 117

  black market at, 117

  Block 11 at, 130, 264

  Block 14 at, 126

  bombing and, see bombing, Auschwitz and

  casualty figures for, 503–4

  cover up efforts at, 499–500, 502–3

  crematoriums at, 95, 100, 107, 118, 120, 121, 133, 136, 155, 200–201, 203, 295, 297, 300, 326, 383, 453, 494–97, 499, 500, 503, 559n

  Dutch Jews in, 11–12, 139

  escapes from, see escapes from Auschwitz

  evacuation of, 502–3, 508, 517–18

  expansion of, 121, 127, 294, 296

  fruit trees at, 11, 544n

  gallows at, 122–23

  gas chambers at, 91, 95–99, 107, 108, 111, 113, 118, 119, 121, 125, 133, 166, 201, 271, 295, 296, 300, 375, 417, 449, 453, 454, 464, 484, 496–500, 503

  Himmler’s visits to, 291, 294–97, 575n

  Hungarian Jews at, see Hungarian Jews, at Auschwitz

  inner camp of, 123, 127

  as labor camp, 93, 271

  lack of German opposition to, 113–14

  latrines at, 110, 132

  liberation of, 503–4, 512, 599n

  malnutrition and starvation at, 107, 108, 109, 112

  music at, 109, 112–13, 121, 294, 498

  as network of death, 111

  numbers and tattoos at, 108, 117, 118, 120, 135, 203

  outer camp of, 123, 127

  photographs of, 128–29, 203, 431, 452, 453, 497, 498, 499, 559n, 591n–92n

  private sector links of, 111–12

  publicizing of, 326–27

  registrars at, 118–20, 126, 127

  removal of corpses at, 99, 100

  repairs at, 100

  rescue of Jews and, 449–58

  response to, 536

  roll calls at, 107, 108, 109, 125, 130, 131

  secrecy of, 93, 111, 120, 166, 205, 323, 578n

  security at, 123–24

  selection process at, 94–95, 200, 295, 556n

  sickness at, 107

  sirens at, 124, 131

  slave labor at, 106–11, 117, 119, 120, 129, 135, 557n

  solitary confinement at, 109

  Sonderkommando revolt at, 495–96, 499

  Soviet advance on, 499, 502, 503

  special camp at, 119–21

  SS vacations from, 103–6, 557n

  stench of, 94, 99, 100, 110, 136, 149

  trains for, see trains, Auschwitz and

  underground at, 118

  Vrba transferred to, 116–17

  weakest left behind at, 502, 503, 508

  Auschwitz (town), 102, 112, 291

  history of, 92–93

  pubs in, 112, 113, 558n

  Auschwitz I, 111

  Auschwitz III, 111, 453

  Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II), 111, 118–19, 155, 168, 294, 450, 494–96, 544n

  bombing of, 464, 472

  construction of, 93, 271

  evacuation of, 502–3

  moat of, 123

  photographs of, 203, 453, 499, 591n–92n

  SS combing of grounds of, 131–36

  Australian squadron, 462, 463

  Austria, Austrians, 92, 113, 499, 517

  Allied bombing of, 398

  German annexation of, 214, 232, 288, 372

  Hitler in, 360–64

  Austrian Jews, 263, 304, 463

  Axis powers, 241, 245, 274, 278, 333, 350, 378, 413, 441

  French siding with, 341

  map of North African operations of, 336–37

  map of territories controlled by, 250

  see also specific countries

  Azalea, HMS, 158

  Babi Yar, 259–60

  Bad Nauheim, 25

  Badoglio, Pietro, 397

  Baer, Richard, 557n

  Baghdad, 15, 18

  Balfour Declaration (1917), 311

  Balkans, 204, 232, 245, 252, 297, 355, 382, 436,
463

  Allied bombing of, 393, 398

  Ball, William, 142

  Baltic Sea, 66, 253, 255, 500, 552n

  Baltic states, 72, 552n

  Baltimore, USS, 481

  Barkley, Alben W., 240, 375–76

  Baruch, Bernard, 33, 91, 139–42, 156, 422

  Basra, 15, 16

  Bastogne, 500, 501–2

  Bavaria, 281, 367, 368

  BBC, 190, 290, 325, 331, 332, 339, 435, 497, 504

  beatings, 116, 284, 360, 523

  at Auschwitz, 108, 109, 119, 120, 127, 143, 295, 296

  Becker, Dr., 263, 264

  Bedford, Va., 186, 564n

  Bedford boys, 186–87, 564n

  beer hall putsch, 367, 372

  Belgian Jews, 133, 170, 297, 304

  Belgium, 165, 181, 192, 236, 269, 271

  blitzkrieg against, 48, 49, 288

  liberation of, 493

  refugees and, 218

  Belgrade, Nazis in, 245

  Belleau Wood, FDR’s walk in, 38

  Belzec, 271, 304, 320, 326, 403, 434

  Berchtesgaden, 198–99

  Bergen-Belsen, 518, 527–28

  Bergson, Peter H., 379–80, 401, 402, 415, 440

  Berle, Adolf, Jr., 225

  Berlin, 100, 102, 165, 179, 193, 258, 297, 302, 357, 371, 512

  Allies in, 481

  bombing of, 5–10, 53, 75, 102, 381, 409, 434, 543n–44n

  bread lines in, 284

  Breslau compared with, 282, 283

  British ambassador to, 317

  damage in, 8–9, 102

  Goebbels’s speech in, 347–48, 397

  Hitler’s panzer commander in, 260

  Hitler’s speeches in, 205, 270, 324–25

  Hitler’s welcome in, 52

  Kristallnacht in, 212–13

  Lindbergh in, 566n–67n

  news of escape wired to, 136

  in 1943, 347–48

  revolution in, 365

  Schulte in, 281, 282, 283, 288, 289, 300

  slave labor in defense of, 518

  surrender of, 530–31

  synagogues in, 212

  U.S. ambassador to, 318

  Wannsee conference in, 264–70, 412

  Washington compared with, 349

  Welles in, 48

  Berlin, Battle of, 6–10, 102, 543n–44n

  Berlin, Isaiah, 58, 533

  Bermuda conference (1943), 383–87, 391, 401, 415, 583n

  Bern, 306, 307, 375, 408, 458

  Besser, Aliza, 521

  Bethesda Naval Hospital, 86–87, 438