Jan

12 2014

FDR and the Jews

10:00AM - 10:30AM  

Arnold Hall 96 Wentworth

Contact
swickmn@cofc.edu

Nearly seventy-five years after World War II, a contentious debate lingers over whether Franklin Delano Roosevelt turned his back on the Jews of Hitler’s Europe. Defenders claim that FDR saved millions of potential victims by defeating Nazi Germany. Others revile him as morally indifferent and indict him for keeping America’s gates closed to Jewish refugees and failing to bomb Auschwitz’s gas chambers. Though his actions may seem inadequate in retrospect, Allan Lichtman argues that FDR was a concerned leader whose efforts on behalf of Jews were far greater than those of any other world figure. Allan J. Lichtman (PhD, Harvard 1973) has been Professor of History at American University since 1973. A prolific author, he has lectured in the US and internationally and provided commentary for major US and foreign networks and leading newspapers and magazines across the world. Lichtman’s book, White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement (2008) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction.