Quoted By:
Otto Frank, Anne’s father, began seeking ways to escape to the US as early as 1938. At the time, the US had no specific refugee policy, but enforced quotas based on national origin.
The Franks were never officially denied visas, the report concludes, but their applications were rendered useless by “bureaucracy, war and time”. One application was lost in a German bombardment of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1940.
Following the publication of the report last week, Jewish groups have warned of potential contemporary parallels. Melanie Nezer, an official with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a Jewish non-profit that helps resettle refugees, pointed to Donald Trump’s travel ban and gutting of refugee resettlement programs.
“These nationality-based bans echo the policies that kept people from German-occupied countries out of the United States beginning in 1941,” she told HuffPost via email. “Even though they were not explicitly the target of these policies, Jews were particularly impacted by them.”
The Franks were never officially denied visas, the report concludes, but their applications were rendered useless by “bureaucracy, war and time”. One application was lost in a German bombardment of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1940.
Following the publication of the report last week, Jewish groups have warned of potential contemporary parallels. Melanie Nezer, an official with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a Jewish non-profit that helps resettle refugees, pointed to Donald Trump’s travel ban and gutting of refugee resettlement programs.
“These nationality-based bans echo the policies that kept people from German-occupied countries out of the United States beginning in 1941,” she told HuffPost via email. “Even though they were not explicitly the target of these policies, Jews were particularly impacted by them.”
