Daniels Chapter 11

I was shocked to learn that many Jews were not given visa in the majority of cases during World War II. Many of these Jews were losing their lives to the Holocaust occurring in Nazi Germany, yet the United States was doing little to grant visas or even refugee status to the average Jewish person. In fact, it was difficult for many Jewish refugees to be accepted to the United States because of State Department often made it difficult for them to come over. Daniels writes, “The State Department, however, and especially Avra M. Warren, head of its Visa Division, continually raised—one is tempted to say ‘invented’ – difficulties” (298). It’s alarming to me that someone in the State Department would go out of their way to limit the number of Jewish immigrants coming in when their lives were threatened in their home country. However, in the case of those Jewish intellect and individuals that the Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Cincinnati wanted to bring to the United States, the individuals coming from Nazi Germany and war-torn Europe had little problem coming over. Individuals such as Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann hardly experienced problems when trying to I never really thought of such important individuals avoided being taken into the Nazi concentration camps and instead taken to the United States.

It really struck me when I read how the quota for Germany that was set was never actually met during the war years. Yet, there were numerous cases of Jews from Germany being denied acceptance to the United States. Daniels shares, “For the years 1933-40 there were 211,895 German quota spaces. Only 100,987 were actually used” (300). Why was this the case? It struck me when I learned that most people were rejected because of a concern over German spies would come into the U.S. unnoticed along with the rest of the immigrants. In this way, more Germans were restricted from coming in because of potential spies.

In a much different way, most Asian Americans and Asian immigrants also suffered because of the war. Many of the Japanese were interned in concentration camps throughout the United States because the government felt that they could be sabotages and could report back to their Japanese enemy. The government felt as though even though many Japanese were Americans, they still felt deeply committed to their home country. I also found it interesting that the Japanese originally the “gentlemen’s agreement” with the United States allowing a select group of Japanese to come into the United States in earlier periods. Ironically enough, the Chinese who were barred from becoming citizens before the war were able to become citizens. Because the Chinese were on the American side, the U.S. government decided to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and allowed the Chinese to become citizens. Daniels shares, “During the eight years 1945-52, when there were a total of 840 Chinese quota slots, just over 11,000 Chinese actually emigrated to the United States” (304). Of these Chinese that were coming, many of them came under the 1946 Act that allowed Chinese wives of American citizens to be admitted to the United States without being part of the quota. One of the main goals of this period of immigration was the emphasis on family reunification.