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53 CHAPTER FOUR Confronting the President The title of DuBois’s report, “Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of the Jews,” left no doubt that the contents were political dynamite. But DuBois knew the report would have an impact only if Morgenthau were prepared to use it. The treasury secretary was reluctant to approach President Roosevelt on the rescue issue, preferring to go through the regular channels , that is, the State Department. Hoping to force Morgenthau’s hand, DuBois decided to up the ante. ✳ ✳ ✳ DuBois:1 I had the feeling from a few things that [Secretary Morgenthau] had said that Roosevelt was not the greatest—let’s put it this way—on this Jewish problem. So after the report was prepared, which [Morgenthau] was going to deliver to Roosevelt . . . I said, Mr. Secretary, if it means anything and if you want to, you can tell the President—if the President doesn’t take any action on this report , I’m going to resign and release the report to the press. Whether he ever told that to Roosevelt or not, I don’t know, probably not, but I just don’t know. That’s how deep I felt about the thing, and I think that also impressed [Morgenthau], the fact that I was willing to resign. I would have to. Believe me, I would have, if the President hadn’t acted. . . . I have a feeling [Morgenthau] acted because he knew if he didn’t act, it was going to become a very explosive thing politically. And that’s why he acted, would be my guess. Joan Morgenthau:2 My father’s relationship with the President was a very close and very intense relationship. Over a period of many, many years. And I do think it was one of the most important things to him in his life. And it was not a—it was not always an easy relationship. My father used to say that he was, he was the favorite whipping boy. And he used that term quite often when things, when things didn’t go well. . . . [M]y father didn’t want to push things too far. And for example, I think that as a Jew he felt that he needed almost to be extra careful to be sure that he was speaking first as an American and only CHAPTER FOUR 54 secondly as a Jew. And although he was sensitized to kinds of issues that people perhaps who were not Jewish were not very sensitive to at that time, he didn’t want to push it as a Jew. He wanted to make it very clear that he felt that he was, there was no doubt that he was an American. . . . I think it must have been very difficult for him to—to push the issue to the extent that he did when he felt that he just had to go circumvent the State Department at any cost. I think that must have been difficult. I think he felt that he was pushing the boundaries of his, of his relationship. But I think he felt by that time so strongly that something had to be done that he was willing to take that chance. Pehle:3 [It] was a strong report to Morgenthau, stating in the starkest terms what had happened, that we had caught the State Department suppressing information. We had caught them trying to cover it up and that action had to be taken. . . . The Secretary agreed that he should go to see the President, but he first asked us to write another memorandum based on the first one, from himself to the President. Which we did. . . . The memorandum we prepared from the Secretary to the President was in more moderate tones but still insisted that action had to be taken right away. The Secretary knew that he had to act. And he arranged an appointment with the President Sunday afternoon, which was not ordinarily the time for business at the White House. It was not an easy thing for [Morgenthau] to do because he did not want to be the spokesman for Jewish interests. But on the other hand, he knew that he had to use his relationship with the President in this particular area. DuBois:4 [The] report . . . said, “the tragic history of this government’s handling of this matter—namely the slaughter of the Jewish people in Europe— reveals that certain State Department officials are guilty...

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