Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, the United States did not have an official refugee policy.  The immigration procedure was slow and deliberate.  This gradual process was primarily lagging due to the quotas imposed.  To ensure these quotas were fulfilled with deserving immigrants, specifically those who could financially support themselves.  This requirement was enacted in response to the economic hardships state post-Great Depression.  Despite the persecution of Jews in Germany, public and government attitudes related to immigration were influenced by the poor economic state, intensifying anti semitism, isolationism, and xenophobia amongst the populace (The United States and the Holocaust).  In 1939, American consuls abroad also screened refugees on national security grounds, making an arduous immigration process increasingly more difficult.  Thus, immigrants waited, often for years, on a list.

Amidst the Nazi oppression, Jews in Germany could legally leave until fall 1941 (United States Policy and Its Impact on European Jews).  Until fall 1942, a fraction of refugees in France fled to the United States.  However, there was national fear the Nazis utilized this opportunity to smuggle spies and saboteurs in with refugees.  Therefore, immigration officials further tightened visa policies for immigrants and nonimmigrants (The United States and the Holocaust).

In August 1942, the State Department received a report from Gerhart Riegner, the Geneva-based representative of the World Jewish Congress (WJC).  The report revealed the Germans’ intention to physically annihilate the Jews of Europe (United States Policy and Its Impact on European Jews).  The department believed the report was a rumor, thus the report was never delivered to the President of the WJC, Rabbi Wise, the intended recipient.

Despite this obstruction, British Channels forwarded the report to Rabbi Wise and asked the State Department to investigate the content of the report.  Discovering the reports validity, on December 17, the United States, Great Britain, and ten other Allied governments issued a declaration denouncing Nazi Germany's atrocities and warning that perpetrators of such crimes would be held responsible for their actions (United States Policy and Its Impact on European Jews).  

In January, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, instigated a rescue protocol.  However, this action was done out of the compulsion of officials in his own government and an American Jewish community then fully aware of the extent of mass murder.  President FDR established the War Refugee Board, an independent agency assigned the position of rescuing imperiled refugees.  

Additionally, in June 1944, President Roosevelt established an Emergency Refugee Shelter out of the remains of Fort Ontario.   Nearly one-thousand refugees in Allied-occupied Italy were transported to this shelter outside existing immigration laws.  However, President Roosevelt assured Congress these refugees would return to their homeland when the war ended (The United States and the Holocaust).

In May 1945, Allied victory defeated the Nazi terror in Europe, ending the war in the Pacific August.  However, liberated Jews emerged from concentration camps and hiding places, traumatized, discovering a new world.  Lacking home and family and reluctant to return to their pre-war lives, an estimated 150,000 displaced persons fled antisemitism, violence, and Communism in eastern Europe.

Nevertheless, after the war, Immigration restrictions were still in effect in the United States, and legislation to expedite the admission of Jewish Displaced Persons was slow in coming (The United States and the Holocaust).  

President Harry S. Truman favored a liberal immigration policy toward Displaced Persons.  On December 22, he issued the “Truman Directive,” announcing visas would be granted to Displaced Persons within the existing Immigration quotas.  While immigration did not increase the admittance of Displaced Persons did.  Between 35,000-40,000 DPs, predominantly Jewish, entered the United States between December 22, 1945 and July 1, 1948 under provision of this doctrine (United States Policy and Its Impact on European Jews).

In 1948, Congress complied to the intense lobbying by the American Jewish community, and passed legislation to admit 202,000 Displaced Persons to the United States (United States Policy and Its Impact on European Jews).  Nearly 80,000 of these persons were Jewish and the remaining were Christians from Eastern Europe and the Baltics who were forced laborers (United States Policy and Its Impact on European Jews).

United States’ entry qualifications were incredibly inflexible and privileged certain refugees.  President Truman called the law “flagrantly discriminatory” against Jews (United States Policy and Its Impact on European Jews).  In 1950, Congress amended the law, invoking a turning point in American immigration policy, establishing a precedent for later refugee crises.  

Bibliography

"History of U.S. Immigration Laws | Federation for American Immigration Reform." History of U.S. Immigration Laws | Federation for American Immigration Reform. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017. <http://www.fairus.org/facts/us_laws>.

"The United States and the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017. <https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005182>.

"United States Policy and Its Impact on European Jews." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017. <https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007652>.

"United States Policy Toward Jewish Refugees, 1941–1952." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017. <https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007094>.