What do you think?
Rate this book
While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy
First published in 1967, 'While Six Million Died' revealed the untold story behind the deliberate obstruction placed in the way of attempts to save the Jewish people from Hitler's "Final Solution, " with detailed documentation from worldwide interviews with participants, research in archives around the world, as well a classified and official papers that had never been published before Morse's exhaustive study. While the tragedy of the Holocaust continues to be told by historians, novelists, filmmakers, and others, no single volume has documented this dark period in its historical relationship to America as thoroughly and passionately as Arthur Morse's pioneering work.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
8 people are currently reading
421 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 24, 2023
What a powerful book which takes a little different approach to the Holocaust. Instead of concentrating on the techniques and physical acts of the Nazi extermination of the Jewish people, it asks two questions:
* What did the rest of the world, especially the US and Britain, know about the planned annihilation.
* What was their reaction to this knowledge.
The answer to the first question is "yes, they knew about it". Hitler stated in a speech to the Reichstag in 1939, his clear intention of destroying all Jewish people. In order to support that statement, he again repeated it in 1942 and used the term "extermination". Additionally, the Allies were receiving many reports from Germany and other countries under German occupation of the horrors being visited upon the Jewish population.
The answer to the second question is "little or nothing". Jews escaping from Nazi Germany were turned away at the borders of the US due to the ridiculous immigration policies and, frankly, the anti-Semitic attitudes of some of the political leadership. (The incident of the ship, St. Louis is particularly shameful.) The initial excuse was neutrality but even after the US entered the war, attempts were futile.
The author goes into great detail about the political machinations that stalled any attempt or action to address the human tragedy that was engulfing Europe. I felt that he was fair in his assessments and his research and source material were based on fact, not opinion. It is not an easy book to read as it will cause anger and actual shock at the attitudes and actions that prevented the saving of lives. I recommend it.
* What did the rest of the world, especially the US and Britain, know about the planned annihilation.
* What was their reaction to this knowledge.
The answer to the first question is "yes, they knew about it". Hitler stated in a speech to the Reichstag in 1939, his clear intention of destroying all Jewish people. In order to support that statement, he again repeated it in 1942 and used the term "extermination". Additionally, the Allies were receiving many reports from Germany and other countries under German occupation of the horrors being visited upon the Jewish population.
The answer to the second question is "little or nothing". Jews escaping from Nazi Germany were turned away at the borders of the US due to the ridiculous immigration policies and, frankly, the anti-Semitic attitudes of some of the political leadership. (The incident of the ship, St. Louis is particularly shameful.) The initial excuse was neutrality but even after the US entered the war, attempts were futile.
The author goes into great detail about the political machinations that stalled any attempt or action to address the human tragedy that was engulfing Europe. I felt that he was fair in his assessments and his research and source material were based on fact, not opinion. It is not an easy book to read as it will cause anger and actual shock at the attitudes and actions that prevented the saving of lives. I recommend it.
May 5, 2017
This is such a tough book to read because you desperately want the U.S. and the European countries to do the right thing, but you know exactly how it turns out; the chapter on the S.S. St. Louis is probably the most painful example of this, and one of the most embarrassing moments in United States history. It's a great book. It answers the question that so many people ask about the Holocaust - "Why didn't the Jews just leave?" - with the horrible reality of, "They tried, but no one would take them."
January 20, 2018
A dispiriting but well researched description of the Allies' complicity in the Nazi's discrimination against the Jews and others. Morse provides an undisputed historical record that the lives of at least hundreds of thousands who perished in concentration camps could have been saved. The banality of evil described by Hannah Arendt was not confined to within German borders.
April 13, 2023
Long on my to-read list, the time was finally right for me to delve into the other dark side of the Holocaust: The world’s indifference to the plight of the Jewish people and the Nazi’s other civilian victims in Europe. While Six Million Died is Arthur D. Morse’s scathing review of the many failures of world leaders to save lives, feeding Hitler’s madness in his persecution and murder of the Jewish people. This book has too few heroes and too many villains.
Morse’s subtitle is a bit misleading: Apathy was not at all limited to the United States. However, other nations and territories clearly looked to the US for leadership and example, neither of which were forthcoming until far too late. The British shared in the shame, for their inaction, but the US had a much greater capacity to bring additional refugees within its borders. The fear of spies slipping through and talk of racial/religious favoritism drove the anti-refugee campaign in America, even to the point of denying 50,000 children temporary safety and security. As Morse put it, opponents had “won their war against the children. The aliens had tried to breach the wall of the mighty Republic, but the patriots had withstood their assault.”
Those who find themselves wondering why the allies didn’t bomb the death chambers of the concentration camps aren’t asking the right question: Why did we allow them to be built and filled with human beings in the first place? But the former topic is addressed as well, towards the end of the book, and after all the outrageous reasoning and explanations for the latter question, in the decade before the end of the war, it actually makes a little sense.
The book does not spend much time on the details of mistreatment with which we are already familiar, but necessarily includes some of the unspeakable crimes to boost the reader’s exasperation.
This one is destined for removal from high school shelves in the US, I’m certain, based on current events We don’t like owning up to our mistakes.
Suggested tie-in reading: While Six Million Died has a chapter on the passenger ship St. Louis, which was turned away at Cuba and sent back to Europe by the US. Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust tracks the fate of everyone aboard.
Morse’s subtitle is a bit misleading: Apathy was not at all limited to the United States. However, other nations and territories clearly looked to the US for leadership and example, neither of which were forthcoming until far too late. The British shared in the shame, for their inaction, but the US had a much greater capacity to bring additional refugees within its borders. The fear of spies slipping through and talk of racial/religious favoritism drove the anti-refugee campaign in America, even to the point of denying 50,000 children temporary safety and security. As Morse put it, opponents had “won their war against the children. The aliens had tried to breach the wall of the mighty Republic, but the patriots had withstood their assault.”
Those who find themselves wondering why the allies didn’t bomb the death chambers of the concentration camps aren’t asking the right question: Why did we allow them to be built and filled with human beings in the first place? But the former topic is addressed as well, towards the end of the book, and after all the outrageous reasoning and explanations for the latter question, in the decade before the end of the war, it actually makes a little sense.
The book does not spend much time on the details of mistreatment with which we are already familiar, but necessarily includes some of the unspeakable crimes to boost the reader’s exasperation.
This one is destined for removal from high school shelves in the US, I’m certain, based on current events We don’t like owning up to our mistakes.
Suggested tie-in reading: While Six Million Died has a chapter on the passenger ship St. Louis, which was turned away at Cuba and sent back to Europe by the US. Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust tracks the fate of everyone aboard.
July 29, 2020
This book is a very difficult read. It tells the story of America’s reaction to the Nazi execution of the Jewish race during WWII. The United States ignored or downplayed all reports of the plight of the Jews. As the actions of the Nazis worsened, we not only refused to aid the Jews, but actually made it harder for them to immigrate to the United States. The State Dept was especially culpable. They constantly made the requirements for immigration more difficult. Led by Breckinridge Long, the State Dept displayed discrimination against Jewish refugees. Congress followed suit by tightening immigration laws. FDR refused to use the power and prestige of his office to help.
The United States called for a world conference on the refugee issue, but it resulted in nothing being accomplished. Our position was to ask others countries to accept the refugees while we took none. Our refusal to take in refugees was a big propaganda tool for Hitler and his program. The story of the plight of the refugees on the ship St Louis is only one episode in this drama. We refused to allow entry to these people even though most of them had visas to enter the US. For most of the critical years of 1933-1939, our immigration quotas weren’t even filled to capacity.
Not until January,1943 with the creation of the War Refugee Board, was any effort made to rescue Jews. Even then, the State Dept did all in it’s power to stall and delay rescue efforts. The book details the heroic efforts of the men and women, like Raoul Wallenberg, who labored tirelessly to rescue these refugees.
This book delineates a sad chapter in our history.
The United States called for a world conference on the refugee issue, but it resulted in nothing being accomplished. Our position was to ask others countries to accept the refugees while we took none. Our refusal to take in refugees was a big propaganda tool for Hitler and his program. The story of the plight of the refugees on the ship St Louis is only one episode in this drama. We refused to allow entry to these people even though most of them had visas to enter the US. For most of the critical years of 1933-1939, our immigration quotas weren’t even filled to capacity.
Not until January,1943 with the creation of the War Refugee Board, was any effort made to rescue Jews. Even then, the State Dept did all in it’s power to stall and delay rescue efforts. The book details the heroic efforts of the men and women, like Raoul Wallenberg, who labored tirelessly to rescue these refugees.
This book delineates a sad chapter in our history.
July 13, 2010
Interesting look at all that could have been done to obstruct the
holocaust. Lots of facts and stories that come in handy for
debates in showing the world in general had their misgivings about
taking in the Jews, which in turn provided perfect propaganda
for the Germans.
However you can see many items are a question of slanting, eg
FDR had war priorities, do you divert
resources to say bomb death camp ovens and provide
short term relief, or prosecute the war and end it all?
June 28, 2020
This is an in depth examination of the inaction of the Allies save the Jews during the Holocaust. The sentiment towards the plight of the Jews was not matched by any concrete action. The State departments dithering, the UK's protracted excuses doomed millions to barbaric cruelty and death. A sad tale that must be told and must never be forgotten. Mankind cannot close it's eyes to such barbarity ever again.
January 28, 2013
Excellent book. Painted an objective and maddening picture of the apathy of American bureaucrats who couldn't figure out how save millions of lives despite the solutions and power they possessed. Effectively dispels the myth that America didn't have a clear sense of what was happening in Europe during the war.
November 7, 2022
Eye-opening and jaw-dropping. This book will help make up for what we did not learn in school about the apathy of the American government toward the fate of Jewry before and during World War II. Written by a first-rate journalist who had worked with Edward R Murrow at CBS, the book is not only meticulously researched but also very moving. The chapter on the tragedy of the St Louis, a passenger ship carrying almost a thousand refugees from Hamburg to Cuba, and subsequently the U.S. in 1939, is particularly dramatic, vividly evoked and indicative of the political and cultural cross-currents whipping the western world at the time. I was inspired to read this book after watching Ken Burns’ latest documentary series, America and the Holocaust, to understand better “what we knew, when we knew—and what we did, or didn’t do, about it. Well worth the effort, both the series and the book.
February 12, 2019
Awe man! What a sad depressing time in our history. SO meany things we could have done differently, if nothing else- let the immigrants come! I don't understand why in a time of such turmoil for the Jewish people they were not helped more, especially when they were sponsored or on ships at our ports! The last 2 chapters shined a little light on some of the good that was done then. However, it's good to know the history so we can change our future not hide it.
July 21, 2025
This volume tells of how the USA and Britain during World War II, were not only apathetic to the fate of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, but actually obstructed all efforts to save them.
The book explores the questions:
What did the rest of the world, in particular the United States and Great Britain, know about the Nazi plans for the annihilation of the Jews?
What was their reaction to this knowledge?
After it was learned from a German industrialist, and relayed by the representative in Switzerland of the World Jewish Congress, Gerhardt Riegner, of the plans by the Nazis to exterminate European Jewry (and after well over a million Jewish men, women and children had already been butchered , Czech exile Ernest Frischer urged the Allies urged the Allies to ease the blockade of Nazi-occupied Europe so that relief supplies could reach occupied Europe, and proposed that the International Red Cross supply food parcels to ghettos and concentration camps as it did prisoner of war camps. He asked that Jewish children be evacuated from German-occupied territories.
It was debated but no action in this regard was taken.
By January 1943, new evidence had come to light about Nazi mass murder. Riegner provided the American State Department a detrailed 4 page description of Nazi atrocities.
It was reported that the Nazis were killing six thousand Jews each day in Poland.
A 'Stop Hitler Now' Rally was organized by Rabbi Stephen Wise at Madison Square Gardens on March 1, 1943.Chaim Weizmann, President of the Jewish Agency for Palestine stated that "The world can no longer plead that the ghastly facts are unknown and uncomfirmed. At this moment expressions of sympathy without accompanying attempts to launch acts become a hollow mockery in the ears of the dying. The democracies have a clear duty before them. Let them negotiate with Germany through the neutral countries concerning the possible release of the Jews in the occupied countries. Let havens be designated in the vast territories of the United Nations which will give sanctuary to those fleeing from imminent murder. Let the gates of Palestine be opened...the Jewish community of Palestine will welcome with joy and and thanksgiving all delivered from Nazi hands".
Due to violent Arab opposition to Jews entering Palestine, the British closed the gates of the Palestine Mandate and turned back thousands of Jews fleeing Hitler back to the Nazi ovens.
The British announced that there would be no Jewish immigration into the ancient Jewish homeland "unless the Arabs are prepared to acquiesce in it.". They were not, and so millions of Jews who could have been saved died.
The British also rejected the idea of a Jewish parachute unit from Palestine to rescue Jews in Europe, as they were afraid this would advance Jewish Nationhood in the Land of Israel.
The USA refused entry to many Jewish refugees, including a consignment of ten thousand Jewish children, because of domestic objection to Jewish immigration. There was no objection however to the refuge in the USA of thousands of British children, from the German blitz of Britain.
Australia, with it's vast unsettled spaces, announced at the Evian Conference of 1938, that 'As we have no real racial problem we are not desirous of importing one."
Refuges were suggested in such places as the Dominican Republic, Mindanao, British Guiana, the Orinoco basin in Venezuela and Angola.
It all came to nothing.
The proposal, by Dr Weizmann, for the Allies to bombing the gas chambers and furnaces in the death camps was rejected after it was opposed by the Soviets.
And a deal offered by Eichmann to exchange hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives for ten thousand trucks was also rejected.
The Ghetto Fighters House, a kibbutz in Israel founded by survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto published the Vittel Diary by Itzhak Katznelson whose recurring theme was apathy in the face of Nazi murder:
"Sure enough, the nations did not interfere, nor did they they warn the murderers, never a murmur. It was as if the leaders of the nations were afraid the killings might stop."
The Allied powers could have saved millions of Jews and chose not to.
Great Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union bare some responsibility for the Holocaust.
The Jews realized that only their own state and army could save Jewish lives, and citizens of countries that did not lift a finger to save Jewish lives have no right to condemn Israel in any way for saving her children against those who would murder them.
The book explores the questions:
What did the rest of the world, in particular the United States and Great Britain, know about the Nazi plans for the annihilation of the Jews?
What was their reaction to this knowledge?
After it was learned from a German industrialist, and relayed by the representative in Switzerland of the World Jewish Congress, Gerhardt Riegner, of the plans by the Nazis to exterminate European Jewry (and after well over a million Jewish men, women and children had already been butchered , Czech exile Ernest Frischer urged the Allies urged the Allies to ease the blockade of Nazi-occupied Europe so that relief supplies could reach occupied Europe, and proposed that the International Red Cross supply food parcels to ghettos and concentration camps as it did prisoner of war camps. He asked that Jewish children be evacuated from German-occupied territories.
It was debated but no action in this regard was taken.
By January 1943, new evidence had come to light about Nazi mass murder. Riegner provided the American State Department a detrailed 4 page description of Nazi atrocities.
It was reported that the Nazis were killing six thousand Jews each day in Poland.
A 'Stop Hitler Now' Rally was organized by Rabbi Stephen Wise at Madison Square Gardens on March 1, 1943.Chaim Weizmann, President of the Jewish Agency for Palestine stated that "The world can no longer plead that the ghastly facts are unknown and uncomfirmed. At this moment expressions of sympathy without accompanying attempts to launch acts become a hollow mockery in the ears of the dying. The democracies have a clear duty before them. Let them negotiate with Germany through the neutral countries concerning the possible release of the Jews in the occupied countries. Let havens be designated in the vast territories of the United Nations which will give sanctuary to those fleeing from imminent murder. Let the gates of Palestine be opened...the Jewish community of Palestine will welcome with joy and and thanksgiving all delivered from Nazi hands".
Due to violent Arab opposition to Jews entering Palestine, the British closed the gates of the Palestine Mandate and turned back thousands of Jews fleeing Hitler back to the Nazi ovens.
The British announced that there would be no Jewish immigration into the ancient Jewish homeland "unless the Arabs are prepared to acquiesce in it.". They were not, and so millions of Jews who could have been saved died.
The British also rejected the idea of a Jewish parachute unit from Palestine to rescue Jews in Europe, as they were afraid this would advance Jewish Nationhood in the Land of Israel.
The USA refused entry to many Jewish refugees, including a consignment of ten thousand Jewish children, because of domestic objection to Jewish immigration. There was no objection however to the refuge in the USA of thousands of British children, from the German blitz of Britain.
Australia, with it's vast unsettled spaces, announced at the Evian Conference of 1938, that 'As we have no real racial problem we are not desirous of importing one."
Refuges were suggested in such places as the Dominican Republic, Mindanao, British Guiana, the Orinoco basin in Venezuela and Angola.
It all came to nothing.
The proposal, by Dr Weizmann, for the Allies to bombing the gas chambers and furnaces in the death camps was rejected after it was opposed by the Soviets.
And a deal offered by Eichmann to exchange hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives for ten thousand trucks was also rejected.
The Ghetto Fighters House, a kibbutz in Israel founded by survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto published the Vittel Diary by Itzhak Katznelson whose recurring theme was apathy in the face of Nazi murder:
"Sure enough, the nations did not interfere, nor did they they warn the murderers, never a murmur. It was as if the leaders of the nations were afraid the killings might stop."
The Allied powers could have saved millions of Jews and chose not to.
Great Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union bare some responsibility for the Holocaust.
The Jews realized that only their own state and army could save Jewish lives, and citizens of countries that did not lift a finger to save Jewish lives have no right to condemn Israel in any way for saving her children against those who would murder them.
December 22, 2024
gli americani liberatori, grandi eh? però sapevano molto bene che cosa succedeva in europa e non solo non hanno fatto nulla per impedire il genocidio: hanno chiuso l'accesso a centinaia di migliaia di persone che si sarebbero potute salvare, hanno boicottato l'opera di chi cercava di porre un freno alla shoah. questo libro racconta bene, nei particolari, quanto gli stati uniti siano stati conniventi con hitler. certo noi abbiamo poco di cui andare fieri, ma questo lo sanno tutti. invece ciò che si legge qui non è altrettanto noto e andrebbe saputo e tenuto a mente.
April 19, 2023
narrative nonfiction from 1967, surprisingly useful for research
May 13, 2025
Very disturbing chronicle of America's and other's apathy toward the Nazi's treatment of the Jews.
December 29, 2019
Probably one of the best books I've read. And necessary to understand why FDR was no friend of the Jews.
In February 1973 I borrowed the book from our synagogue's library. I was 15 at the time, and so spellbound that I engineered my bedroom windows so my mother, coming home from a date with my eventual stepfather, couldn't see the lights on in my room from the road.
The book takes us from Hitler's early anti-Jewish policies to the Nuremberg Laws, to Kristallnacht, to the voyage of the St. Louis and the establishment of death camps. In the face of this impending slaughter, the U.S., Canada and to a lesser extent Britain actively prevented Jewish arrivals in safe countries.
During the war, FDR arranged matters so that he could maintain "deniability." Overall, an entrancing book that shook my roots as a budding young Democrat to the core.
I was reading another review of The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro. She states in part:
In a similar sense, this book really made Judaism a central part of who I am.
In February 1973 I borrowed the book from our synagogue's library. I was 15 at the time, and so spellbound that I engineered my bedroom windows so my mother, coming home from a date with my eventual stepfather, couldn't see the lights on in my room from the road.
The book takes us from Hitler's early anti-Jewish policies to the Nuremberg Laws, to Kristallnacht, to the voyage of the St. Louis and the establishment of death camps. In the face of this impending slaughter, the U.S., Canada and to a lesser extent Britain actively prevented Jewish arrivals in safe countries.
During the war, FDR arranged matters so that he could maintain "deniability." Overall, an entrancing book that shook my roots as a budding young Democrat to the core.
I was reading another review of The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro. She states in part:
Midway through adolescence, I began wondering a bit which life event would finally make me feel like an adult. Of course I had the usual teenaged hypotheses, and acted accordingly to test some of them out. Getting drunk? Having sex? Driving a car? Going to college? None of these things did make me feel grownup; in many instances, their effect was the opposite. *************For the past few years I’ve had the sense of wearing an oversized grownup life that wasn’t actually mine, while that magical rite of passage into adulthood continued to elude me. Maybe when I have children things will click into place, I’ve mused, listening to Talking Heads with one ear and sort of doubting it.... Part of this might be generational; if thirty is the new twenty, it’s no wonder that I get that Lost Boys feeling, and shrug confusedly when overnight company makes fun of my teddy bear.
I’m pleased to announce that thanks to the glory of Robert Caro, this stage is basically behind me. Having finally finished The Power Broker, I feel much more like a grownup, and believe it or not, I’m pretty into that.
***********
But reading this book made me feel like a grownup because it helped me to understand the way the world works as I never had before.
In a similar sense, this book really made Judaism a central part of who I am.
September 1, 2016
I read the Italian version of this book, that tells the universal indifference of a whole planet towards a genocide. Nothing can me more actual than that.
Ho letto la versione italiana di un libro che racconta l'indifferenza di un intero pianeta (tranne rari casi) ad un genocidio. Niente di più attuale.
Ho letto la versione italiana di un libro che racconta l'indifferenza di un intero pianeta (tranne rari casi) ad un genocidio. Niente di più attuale.
November 11, 2012
much too heavy to read now that i've already spent concentrated time in the concentrations camps and the Third Reich. may revisit at a later date. gut wrenching and frustrating. the wheels of justice grind SOOOOOOOOO slowly.
January 18, 2009
Some of Morse's facts have been proven wrong since this was first published in 1968, but it is still a masterpiece.
Currently reading
November 24, 2009Scary how much procrastination took place. They all knew! Evil. Pure Evil. America, England, the Vatican, all guilty by association
November 28, 2013
A very good and poignant book about the failures of the UK and American governments to stop the Holocaust. The book goes into detail about what each country knew and when.
January 28, 2017
Relevant now more than ever.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews