March 1, 1943
More than 70,000 rallied at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, calling on the U.S. government to reconsider its refusal to offer sanctuary to Jewish refugees of Nazi Germany. Information about Nazi atrocities against Jews had leaked out of Europe; fragmentary reports had appeared in the US press in 1941. In May 1942, the Polish-Jewish underground smuggled out a report which estimated that 700,000 Polish Jews had already been killed by the Germans. In August 1942, Rabbi Wise, head of the American Jewish Congress, received a cablegram revealing the existence of a comprehensive German plan to murder the Jews of Europe. In November, 1942, after the US government confirmed the general accuracy of the information in the cable, Wise appealed to President Roosevelt to make an effort to stop the German murder plan.
