****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is the interplay of German, Vichy French, and American policy on the fate of German Jews from 1938-42. Michael Dobbs, a former Washington Post reporter, is using those journalistic skills as a staff researcher/writer for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.Dobbs focuses on the widely varied fates of about four extended families from a German village on the edge of the Black Forest, just across the Rhine from Alsace in France. Chapters alternate focus between approachable individuals and broad national policies of the three countries.Some of the village's Jewish residents made it to freedom in the U.S. or other countries through a range of different routes; others perished in Germany, or in detention camps in southern France or Auschwitz. Dobbs follows each person through the agony of seeking visas and ships before or after war broke out.Starting in the 1980's, there have been many books arguing whether FDR could have done more to save the Jews of Europe. For a quarter century, those were based on cherry-picked facts to provide a veneer of objectivity to "prove" strongly held beliefs, pro or con.Only since 2013 have popular histories based on deep dive research brought an objective view of the competing interests that FDR dealt with. It was not always pretty, but it did retain his viability to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.First was "FDR and the Jews," a 2013 broad overview written by American University scholars Breitman and Lichtman. Then "Rescue Board" by Holocaust Museum historian Rebecca Erbelding, covering FDR administration rescue efforts in 1944-45. Finally, this book, The Unwanted, covering the late 1930's to 1942.All three books are significant advances on the topic -- based on in-depth research and more objective in showing cause and effect.
