The Message

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

If the average American was less rabid in their antisemitism, that spelled no great sympathy for the Holocaust’s survivors. In a 1945 poll, only 5 percent of Americans believed that immigration should be increased, while 37 percent believed immigration should be further restricted. When Congress, at President Truman’s behest, attempted to adjust its immigration laws to allow for more Displaced Persons to enter the country, Texas Congressman Ed Gossett denounced them as “the refuse of Europe.” His office was then flooded with a wave of antisemitic vitriol denouncing the “Jew dominated legislation,” inveighing against the “Jew Deal,” asserting that America had “fought on the wrong side” and that Jews had “ruined every country they ever entered including Germany,” and were “already ruining the USA.” Against this backdrop, Congress passed an immigration bill in 1948 that employed geographical and time restrictions in the hopes of keeping Jewish immigration to a minimum.