The U.S. and the Holocaust

“The Golden Door” (Beginnings-1938)

After decades of maintaining open borders, a xenophobic backlash prompts Congress to pass its first laws restricting immigration. Meanwhile, in Germany, Hitler and the Nazis begin their persecution of Jewish people, causing many to try to flee to neighboring countries or America. Franklin Roosevelt and other world leaders are concerned by the growing refugee crisis but fail to coordinate a response.

“The Golden Door” (Beginnings-1938)

2h 8m

After decades of maintaining open borders, a xenophobic backlash prompts Congress to pass its first laws restricting immigration. Meanwhile, in Germany, Hitler and the Nazis begin their persecution of Jewish people, causing many to try to flee to neighboring countries or America. Franklin Roosevelt and other world leaders are concerned by the growing refugee crisis but fail to coordinate a response.

Previews + Extras

  • The Gradual Rise of Nazi Germany: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Gradual Rise of Nazi Germany

    S1 E1 - 6m 5s

    As Jewish children living in Germany, these Holocaust survivors saw their lives turn upside down when the Nazis came into power. But the changes didn’t happen overnight. Instead, they were gradual – step by step – and no one realized how much worse things would get.

  • The American Press in Germany: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The American Press in Germany

    S1 E1 - 5m 43s

    It wasn’t easy for foreign correspondents to report what was really happening in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Sources were often too frightened to talk. Reporters were reluctant to quote witnesses by name for fear of betraying them to the secret police – called the Gestapo. But the best American journalists did write about what was going on, however much the Nazi government tried to hide it.

  • The Rise of Eugenics in America: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Rise of Eugenics in America

    S1 E1 - 5m 54s

    By the early 1900s, many white protestant Americans came to fear they were about to be outnumbered and outbred by immigrants and their offspring. They embraced a new pseudo-science born in Britain, called eugenics. It falsely claimed you could eliminate everything from poverty and prostitution to disabilities if you stopped the individuals they dismissed as “socially defective” from reproducing.

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