Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust

by Robert N. Rosen

Book Overview

Saving the Jews is a rigorously researched narrative and interpretive history of how FDR and his administration dealt with the Nazi persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust, 1933-1945. It disputes... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560257784
• ISBN13: 9781560257783
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
• Length: 654 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

finally, a second look at FDR's policies

We have heard the criticisms of FDR's policy towards the holocaust all too often over the last several decades. They have ranged from benign neglect on his part, to near complicity. This has left many people, myself included, with an uncomfortable feeling about FDR for many years. I'm halfway through Robert Rosen's book, and I now think FDR completely undeserving of the negative comments of other authors on this matter. In fact, I feel as if I've been seriously mislead by previous authors, who seem to have been out to make a quick buck by stirring up negative controversy. Rosen's book contains numerous examples of how previous authors misrepresented events regarding U. S. immigration policy, and the plight of Jewish refugees from the Third Reich. Although it's a worthwhile read, the editing of the book is a bit choppy, with some repetition in different sections. The subject is very important, and I hope it gets discussed on Book TV. I discovered Rosen's book while ordering some of Gerhard Weinberg's books on World War II. If you haven't read Weinberg's stuff, and you're a WWII buff, be prepared for some real surprises, and lots of myth debunking.

Book is probably among the three most important books on Franklin Roosevelt ever written!

This is a must read for those who want to understand about his relations to Jews during the holocaust years. Read my amapedia review below!

An honest historically accurate book

I completely disagree with the last comment. The book does not "omit" anything that actually happened. It does however "omit" the fantasies that have been propagated by historians like David S. Wyman. In his book "The Abandonment of the Jews" he falsifies many historical events in order to further his own agenda. What Rosen has done is eliminate the dramatics from the actual historical event. Yes, obviously the Holocaust was a tragic event, but victimizing an entire race, while criminalizing the leaders is a very black and white way to approach the subject. I would also like to note, that this book is written in a very scholarly manner. The average reader would not pick this book up so clearly this book was not written in hopes of "lucrative" gains. The author also tends to grasp military history which many historians tend to neglect. This is clear in the sense that many authors ask why the US did not bomb the rail road tracks leading to Auschwitz. Anyone who understands military history knows the uselessness of those efforts at the time, the technology simply was not there. On top of that the German army could certainly fix a railroad track! So many books on the holocaust are critical about things that would never have been done. Thank you to Rosen for setting the record straight. This is truly a masterpiece of the highest caliber of research. There is no agenda for this book, it is a clear representation of historical fact. The book was greatly needed, and hopefully will find success.

Getting history right

This book is both an enormously engrossing read and a well-argued and researched correction of history. The correction is necessary because of "revisionist" historians who have claimed that FDR was not only anti-Semitic, but failed to take actions that could easily have saved countless Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Rosen combines a careful look at the facts, including previously unexamined original documents, with incisive analysis and common sense, to to conclude that the truth is just the contrary. FDR's efforts to protect Jewish lives and rights were genuine, often proactive, and almost always as much or more as could reasonably be expected within daunting military and political constraints. Rosen's attitude toward FDR is not worshipful, but by giving us a richer understanding of the historical context, he heightens appreciation of Roosevelt's character and of what Roosevelt did accomplish. The book may also serve a more general purpose: It is an antidote to the paranoia caused by both historians and pundits who apply perfectionist standards to events viewed in hindsight. Equally important, it is a great story very well told.

Saving the Jews - Great Book!

This book is fascinating, very well written, and meticulously researched. It provides an authoritative analysis of Roosevelt's response to the Holocaust. I could not put it down. As Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. said, "If there is a single book to read, 'Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust' is the one. This is an essential book for students of U.S. policy toward the Holocaust." This book examines WWII, the Holocaust and FDR's perspective as events were occurring - in the context of the time. It helps the reader understand the reaction and response of Americans, American Jews, and FDR to Hitler's mass murder. It is a must read. Also, there are many footnotes and sources listed if the reader wants additional information on any particular point.