meacham and his book, the soul of america, the battle for our better angels. pulitzer prize winning historian with leadership in turbulent times. >> in her book, "rescue board," rebecca erbelding writes about a section of the state department created in 1944 they wrote to save european jews. she talked about the response to the holocaust at a bookstore event in washington. this is just under an hour.

>> that afternoon, everyone. thank you for coming. my name is set to another bookseller your politics & prose. i would like to welcome all of you to your favorite bookstore for this afternoon's event. as you may already know, politics & prose host hundreds of event like this all throughout the year. one such event we are doing next saturday, may 12 for her new book on the edge of chaos, why democracy is failing to deliver economic growth and how to fix it. a little bit of housekeeping before we start. first of all, turnover silencer cell phones. we would really appreciate it. for the q&a, please are member to step up to one of the two microphones. apparently it's only on this side. please sign up if you want to ask the author a question.

not only so we can hear the conversation, but because it's also been recorded. for those who want to buy copies of the book, there are copies right behind the cash registers. we'll be doing a signing after the q&a. if you'd like to get your book signed, please sign up to the right of the podium. please keep the chairs where they are as we have another event after this one. now to the main event. this afternoon i'm happy to introduce rebecca erbelding to all of you all of you. she's an all of you. she's an archivist of the curator in that the united states holocaust museum here in the. she has organized easy and six have been on the american was fun to the holocaust paperback has a phd in american history from george mason university. she and her work has been profiled in the washington post. "the new york times" new yorker featured on the history channel and other media outlets.

they discussed their new book, "rescue board: the untold story of america's efforts to save the jews of europe." this book tells the little-known story about a treasury lawyer who helped persuade roosevelt to organize in 1844 with diplomats, smugglers, relief workers across four continents. the work involved forging identity papers, recruiting spies, leaking is a genuine food and money to underground organization. the board saved tens of thousands of lives. lynne olson, author of the book last hope island says that with the research really only brings to light the gripping little-known story of this transformative moment in american history in a proceeding of government players who made it happen.

kirkus reviews calls the work of fine work of scholarly detection, a story that deserves to be much better known. ladies and gentlemen, rebecca erbelding. >> thank you so much great first of them incredibly excited to be here. i've been working on this project for a decade. this is not a book of where were. i come here and look at all the books and fantasize about the moment when it's going to be mine. so this is a really big day and i'm grateful for all of you for sharing it with me. "rescue board" because of the first full week in august 1942 at the internment camp in france. ross was a californian who worked for the american service committee, quicker aid

organization. and the book is watching the first deportation from france north of paris and as we now know to auschwitz for most of them will be killed on arrival. ross knew what was happening in very general terms. he had gone to the capital of collaboration in france and protested to the president of the french government arguing that the nazis plan to exterminate these people. if the united states is so concerned about what was happening, why weren't we taking them? so rescue board is the story of how we got to bear, how u.s. immigration laws were structured to keep desirable immigrants and there is no refugee policy to speak a. it is a story of how the american people and their government were so anti-immigrant that a group of congressmen got together in

april 1938 and vowed they would not introduce any legislation to open immigration for fear that even raising the debate would cause more stricter laws. it is the story of a refugee crisis that extended past pearl harbor in casablanca in the spin, southern france were still trying to get out. it's a story of how a californian could the on the ground in an internment camp witnessing deportation. mainly the book is about what happened next bust mcclellan wasn't the only person working that first weekend of august 1942. your heart return to work in switzerland learned about these rumors of mass killings to the east and the deportation of jews. the audit purpose, a nazi plan to exterminate all the jews in europe. it's hard to look back at the holocaust and not look at it with a lot of hindsight.

back then they saw the president today said they had been suggested before and they inevitably ended. a plan was different. weidner tried to bring us news to the usb at u.s. consulate in switzerland which had a secured and switzerland which hd a secure commission channel to the united states and once the message got to america the state department officials blocked it from being received. it seemed to fantastic, one wrote. another thought it must just be a war rumor and i can't see why they would put this in a telegram. the news of the nazi in the press reported the story in november 1942. by that point, author: how to escape to switzerland where is the americans who remained behind were arrested and interned in germany as they invaded north africa in the nazis without paper more than a year after november 19th 42,

the state department continuously tried to quell any attempt at public rusher for some sort of rescue action. they placed full-page newspaper ads condemning roosevelt, condemning the state department, calling on the u.s. to do some thing. in october 1943, hundreds of orthodox rabbis marched on the capital. the allied armies are thousands of miles away from the camps in the u.s. is only a tenuous grip on the european continent. but much more absolutely could have been done. at this point in the story, most of them in their 30s entered. the most unlikely of heroes. they had spent the fall of 1943 frustrated by state department delays in approving $25,000 in aid money that was to go to jews in france and romania. they were writing a report detailing on the recent state department had given and they

discovered evidence they had been actively trying to reach the united states, to stop the public pressure. if americans don't know about it, they will not put any pressure on the state department to do any thing. they specifically told the u.s. litigation in switzerland not to send any more report about atrocities. so one of the best things about putting the treasury department is henry morgenthau junior, f. or as treasury secretary all his meetings. i was able to use the department's own words and express their frustration. you can read through the transcript of what they're saying. at the end of december 1943, a lawyer at treasury said, and this is a quote, mr. secretary the only question we have in our mind is that has to be taken by the horns in dealing with this jewish issue and get this out of the state department to sub

agency's hand that is willing to do it differently. for instance, take the complaint what are we going to do with the jews? another staff member quietly added, we are seeking a citizen now. armed with their evidence, the treasury department wrote a new report title in the report to the secretary of the acquiescence of this government in the murder of the jews. this is a d.c. town of a lot of a separate government report that is not generally the title of any of these reports. it began one of the greatest crimes in history, slaughtered the jewish people in europe is continuing unabated unless remedial steps of the drastic nature are taken immediately, i'm certain no effective action will be taken by this government to prevent the complete extermination in europe and that this government will have to share for all times responsibility for this extermination. so it was time to go to fdr they decided and demand a new deal.

january 16, 1944, more compelling to members of his staff met with roosevelt and convinced him to issue an executive order establishing a war refugee board come a new government agency tasked with relief and rescue of jews another persecuted. it was actually housed on the third floor of treasury for the treasury department lawyers and 35 wrote assistant secretary -- assistant to secretary john paley served as the direct heir. for the first time in january 1944 comments united states has an official policy about the holocaust and by the end of the war 17 months later they had paid tens of thousands of lives. this keyboard is the first non-self published work. who they were, what they did and how they did it. this seems really strange given that tens of thousands of a published about world war ii and

thousands of books about the holocaust are published every year and for the decade i was writing the book i kept expect someone to come behind me and get there first. the three self published books of all, been the last five years and they are all kind of relying on similar older scholarships. why we watch the abandonment of the jews y 6 million died and many of these play this kind of elaborate game of historian telephoned her one person will sign a document in the other personal site that person citation and it becomes this more elaborate story. the story they tell of american indifference has been really enduring. so enduring that the sheer existence in the actual effort that americans did make at the end of the war had been completely overshadowed. dapper is really important and matters. there is another more basic reason that has been largely forgotten, which is the archival records are almost impossible to

navigate. when i started working in 2011 and 2012, i was looking at 120 boxes at the yard library and their 1944, 1945 border. six boxes cold turkey, six called sweet n. they had actually written about the war refugee with longer pieces to larger books i've written these isolated stories. this is what they were doing in turkey and sweden and switzerland. when i started the first thing i did was photograph all of those 120 boxes. after deleting the duplicates i had about 19,000 original documents. someone page, some a couple hundred. i had to fill in all the gaps. so we ended up with about 43,000 unique documents that i was working through. i put them all into pdfs and gave each one a unique title,

where i found it, what archive i found it didn't and they figured out if you put all 43,000 in one folder and a computer with a lot of memory, it also is chronologically and you can read through things as they were actually happening. things that showed up come a question in one archive, and answer document in the other archive and all of a sudden they are back together. reading through looking at everything chronologically is really important because the prospects for rescue change so rapidly in 1944. options for what you can do change before d-day and after the day before the of the bulge, after the battle of the bulge. the united states has over neutral nation and occupying countries and collaborating nations. reading through chronologically i could see how much time they were spending on projects whether or not they were successful and i could avoid this story is trap of hindsight.

they tried so many ideas and projects but it's hard to explain there were. a couple of overall facts and then tell us the stories before they get to questions. the same day that roosevelt issued the executive order, the board staff streamlined procedure that agencies would use to send money overseas. they argued it didn't matter anymore after january 1944 and if humanitarian aid cut into the hands of the nazis. by the end of the word they'd authorized $11 million, but $154 million today in humanitarian relief money to a host of different organizations in the money was used to buy guns for the french undergrad to pay people hating children in their homes, to pay guys who were taking people across borders. the board appointed representatives in most of the neutral nations, sweden,

portugal, north africa and eventually london. the treasury department employees who were already there were humanitarian aid workers. the representative in turkey is a narcissistic woman does marketing executive who gets in a lot of trouble. they are working on leverage. trying to leverage the near certain allied victory in 1944 to convince the nations that the u.s. cares about what's going to happen to these people and the they can carry some favor if they at least pretend to care, too. from washington, john paley, the director lays out a strategy for the board. persuade the collaborators to stop killing and take action to rescue the people they thought could still be saved. to either move people on board are countries like romania or bulgaria, france, move them out to safety or keep the people deep inside the territory of

alive long enough to be liberated. i'm going to give you an example of each. the board launched a propaganda warfare campaign using radio broadcast leaflets intended to dissuade would-be perpetrators by saying coming you know, we will see what you're doing. we will punish you up the war. it's late in the war could buy become a perpetrator now. you're going to lose. march 24, 1944, roosevelt issued a statement drafted by the board. in one of the crimes in history and times of war, the whole scale systematic goes on unabated every hour. march 24th, only a few days before that had invaded hungary, which was home to the last intact jewish population about 800,000 hungarian jews were still alive and he quickly added a new paragraph to the statement. as a result of the events of the last few days, hundreds of

thousands of living under persecution in the balkan are now threatened with annihilation that these innocent people who party survived a decade should perish over the barbarism which their persecution symbolizes with the major tragedy. we can measure the results of psychological warfare. you can't conduct a number of people who survived because of atrocities that are prevented. i did interview an elderly german man who remembered as a teenager finding the leaflet containing roosevelt statement not your a bombing in his town and that is how he told me he learned about the holocaust. on the reports of local bombing raids over his town were true. he figured that was probably true as well. the u.s. government through the

war also laundered money to help refugees seeking to sweden. to see if i could actually call up money laundering. they have been hard for a couple minutes and finally decided if the money is used for the commission of a crime. and so, i've decided whether or not the u.s. laundered money or not depends on whether or not you are sweden. sweden definitely would've thought this was a crime. iver olson served as the financial attaché. but he was also a spy. his code name crispin passed with monitoring the money -- movement of money more material between germany and sweden. once he added it to his duties, among other things he recruited wallenberg, the now famous swedish businessman who travel to budapest, funded by american jewish organizations for the war refugee board and as most of you

know, issuing letters or protection saving thousands of lives in budapest. i'm not focusing on that today. for much of the summer of 1944, focused on a hazardous than to rescue refugees from lott yet, lithuania and estonia by water. the most skillfully organized type of underground operations because the baltic countries are now virtually feel to everything. he thought they might be able to rescue five to 700 racial political refugees from each country. they were paid for this project directly out of funds from roosevelt. but they realize that such a large deposit would be suspicious and they want to avoid any impression upon funding arrivals. even the swedish jews wrote their very interested in rescue operations along the way don't

involve sweden. task of keeping money out of the hands of the enemy pass the swedish people and at his urging, the staff a goodyear tire in their headquarters in akron, ohio if they transferred $50,000 to their factory, their subsidiary in sweden would give olson the similar amount in swedish kroner. so there are no references to the tire deal in any of the papers. it is clear that they had scrubbed that out. henry morgenthau got a folder of all of their work. so this arrangement worked well. also reported from stockholm in morgenthau's record and although not full proof it's desirable from a security point of view.

as a receipt of cable transfers of such size by individuals involved in operation, unavoidably attract notice and suspicion. he uses the money to purchase guns and keeping money out of the hands of the enemy now argued humanitarian aid is more important than adhering to the rules. in switzerland, which was like i said to run a completely by enemy territories, the man who had been in the california in the internment camps and the beginning of the book as their representative. most of his work involved jews deep inside enemy territory pre-switzerland had closer ties obviously to nazi germany and among a myriad of other things, mcclellan participates in ransom negotiations with the nazis who are trying to use america's newfound interest in refugees to offer basically jews for sale.

the u.s. is never going to agree to pay ransom, but mcclellan and allie meyer who is the american jewish joint distribution committee in switzerland managed to string along a pair of high-ranking nazis for six months. in november 1944, even traveled to zürich and meets with kurt becker dressed in his crisp uniform. as proof the roosevelt was interested in negotiations. during world war ii world war ii, an american government representative politics top secret unauthorized meeting with a high-ranking official to negotiate on humanitarian matters. as a result, got more than eckstein hundred released as a good-faith gesture on the part of the nazis for the board of the refugee camp in upstate new york and brought nearly 1000 mostly jewish refugees from europe to live there. they argued that they must not be given the pretense

justification that the allies while seeking a glorified terms never once offered to receive these people. descent 300,000 food packages in the concentration camps at the end of the war. they pass along requested the war department for the bombing of the gas chambers in auschwitz or to wipe out the entire campus of them with no authorization from the rest of the government, gave the american public detailed information for the first time on the process of a rival selection and gassing at auschwitz. in response to this information from a "washington post" editorial introduced americans to the new word genocide. i don't have time to get into all of these stories or many others including how the refugee board of zsa zsa gabor for the time which is now completely forgotten now when they offered to a back rate all the jews of

hungry. i hope to pick up the book and find out about those. in conclusion, the creation was and remains the only time in american history that the government funded a government agency dedicated to saving the lives of civilians being murdered at the wartime enemy. a 21 months between january 1944 in september 1945 marked a period when american action that american rhetoric about our democratic values. in contrast to many subsequent human rights, at first, they had no cynical secondary mode is. they are not trying for overseas prestige and power. they are not trained to help people who they intend to ever become american citizens. most of the people never had any knowledge that the american government was interested at all in their survival. the refugees -- sorry, the refugees were not intended to become american. this is a quote, what made the body was it was officially

permitted to break tactically every important lob a nation at war in the name of average humanity. one of my hopes with this book is they'll start to enter a public narrative in terms of a talk about american response in the holocaust because it's really relevant history. a lot of the same challenges we debate today on whether they debated the push between providing relief for the many are trying to rescue the few. they tried to figure out how to bring refugees to the united states while addressing legitimate national security concerns and they discussed how many resources can we permit to fall into the hands of an enemy that we are at war with. and while it's clear the united states could've done much more to aid jews another but that was before the war began, what they stuffed it really mattered and i think we need to remember to honor their effort, to bring

greater nuance to our understanding of american race bob and to study their work as they continue to confront these challenges that keep coming up enough as we look at newspapers every day. so that is the story and am happy to take anybody's questions at the microphone is right here. if you have a question, please sign up and i'm happy to address anything. ask me anything. >> so it sounds like a wonderful book. what lessons can we take from what went on then to deal with the situation now, especially muslim refugees for places like syria, afghanistan and iraq who are turned away for exactly the same reason that jews were turned away in a team 39 on the alleged security problem. >> well, it is clear that our security apparatus is much more

sophisticated than it was back then. one of the things that is really concerning to me is humanitarian aid being cut off because there's a lot of things we could do then i read this week about cutting off aid to the way thomas who are doing amazing humanitarian work in area. that is something we need to pay attention to and make it clear to our elected representatives that is not something we will stand for. one of the reasons they access is because the americans made it clear that they were paying attention. since they felt like we were winning the war, they were okay with sending some humanitarian aid and even if that falls in the hands of the enemy were still going to win. is not losing heart in continuing to make it clear that these are our values. i don't have a magic bullet for it because you need an

administration that is listening to that. we need to vote in an administration that is more willing to listen to that. but not giving up is important in continuing to pay attention even when it hurt. thanks. >> congratulations. you might thank you. >> in addition to writing this incredible book, you also did 43,000 documents and taking a really impossible challenge of our pride parade in doing something to encourage the scholarship. what are your hopes for this in our youth depending to share those documents? >> so when i finished photographing everything, i actually gave the library my scans and so they are available online now. they don't have my organization,

my chronological organization because they wanted to get the book out there. because i use proprietary software that i paid for, i don't know how it works to donate that to an organization. i've always been happy to look things up for people if they want to know is my relative mentioned here. there are lots of stories. the refugees who came to the u.s., one book about in the 1990s deserve another new book. they offered to give poker. as far as i know there's not a lot out there for that. a lot of these things could be pulled off into different chunks and i might pull one or two of them off into some thing coming up. i'm still working on that. there's plenty in here. one of the things you do when you write a book as he tries to lay a trail and hopefully something and it will reach someone and they can go into my notes and find things and take

it in their own paths. that is kind of the point. this is not the definitive book. this is the first book. i mean, it's a pretty definitive book. [laughter] but it's also the first one. >> some have suggested that when you compare the good that the war refugee board accomplished to what roosevelt could have accomplished that the feeling is that the war refugee board was really a stop to morgan ball in the jewish community to get the jewish community off of his back. how would you respond to that? >> most of the jewish community at that point was non-roosevelts back. most were fairly reliable democrat and there isn't a lot of evidence he was at risk of losing them in the 1944

election. when he created the board he had not publicly said he was running. it becomes clear in 1944 at least internally that is actively dying. there are some questions as to whether or not he should have run in 1944. that being said, the phrase you always hear is too little too late. i accept that phrase in the realm of 1933 to 1945. the creation is too little and too late. but they're trying to do is too little and too late. they are working as hard as they can and doing almost everything that has ever proposed to them they try to follow up on. one of the interesting things in the first and they do is write to all of these aid organizations who'd been working in the space in pressuring to do some thing and asking for ideas.

they wrote to over 120 organizations asking for public input on what they should be doing. that is definitely something the state department was not going to do, that shows the boards stuff was going to leave no in 1944 to do whatever they could do that way. i think what they accomplished is remarkable. that doesn't discount the fact is so much more could have been done earlier. >> first of all, thank you for all of your work on this book in the research and bringing this pretty important topic to light. given the research and a lot of good material to work through, imagine you got a pretty good idea of exactly how much is known about what the nazis were doing. i wondered if you could comment on that for a moment. particularly when she thought about that.

>> so, the 30,000 square foot view is accurate. they know that nazis are being deported to the east, that there is mass gassing. they are not clear on what those bases are. they know names, but for a long time they don't know the auschwitz and cannot work together. or that it's a work camp. the details get really fuzzy in part because they don't have reliable journalists on the ground. everything is third and fourth hand for a long time. when the board actually does get reports from escapees from auschwitz, that's what they publicized in 1944. we certainly know much more than they did in it is hard not to look back without -- without saying that is not true, but

this is and why i follow this one. they don't know about when it's not true. and so, i get into a little bit in the book and communication is also such a problem. if you want to send something securely, you have to go comment has to be coded and go to the state department. it takes about a week to send coded communication and have it be delivered to its intended recipient. all of these times when if we did something right now it would help this particular group of people who are in danger at that particular moment. they just don't have the capacity to act quickly almost ever. so it does get really hard. i know you said at the beginning that you don't speak for the museum at this point, but since the new exhibit opened around the same time your book was published, i was curious if you could talk about chicken or the

egg. and i guess how your work on this book influenced the exhibit for how did that get put together for a different audience than necessarily a book audience. >> i'm in a story that the holocaust museum. i was an archivist at the museum until 20 teen when i moved over to work on the new exhibit. at that point i had finished my dissertation on the refugee board and had graduated. my dissertation is 800 pages long. i don't recommend it. the book is much better. it is shorter. it's much more interesting. but if you really want the inside scholarly view with all the documents, there is an 800 page dissertation just waiting for you to google. i got brought in because i was an expert in this topic and nobody had really read this before. to that extent, this is, whichever comes first, the chicken or the egg, this comes first in the exhibit came

second. the museum has been working on that exhibit for five years. i came in two years into it when they were getting the narrative set. and it's been one of the privileges of my life to help work on that exhibit. but i think it gets tricky because i read through the exhibit and i say that is what i think. i'm not sure if it is because that's what we all agreed on in the room where i was in the room and that is where we went with it. and so, i think they work well together. i think the narrative stay the same. the exhibit talks about the bombing and attacks about fort ontario and it doesn't get into anything. there's about 99% of this is not reflected in the debate, which covers 1933 to 1945 and will be on the way the holocaust museum.

a very good at it. anyone else? >> this is at once her book addresses specifically, but was there a look back at the state department for what went on there? >> there are a few books. there's a really good one from the 1980s called a pretty good club, which the title alone is a bit sarcastic. there are books on foreign diplomacy that talk about the state department at that time. there was a book specifically during the war. interestingly, they wrote their own history of the war, the state department did in 1946 in 1947. they asked to write their history of the war at major consulates overseas. and probably telling you guys so much -- too much.

don't go to the state department to look. they wrote their own history and wrote about this is how we function. this is what we did. this is how the war changed that and never published. there's all of these chapter drafts in the national archives of the war history at the state department that nobody has ever touched. >> the state department is for the government look back at this awful history? >> s. coming is coming at it the state department has apologized for things like st. louis. at the museum we do trainings for state department officials and so i present on this history to them. they are receptive of it. they understand that this summer at the state department during that time as it was conservatives. all of the other branches of government change fundamentally with the new deal in the throes

of upcoming and end result doesn't. the same people. the aristocratic from anti-semitic or they condone anti-semitism. not everyone there is anti-somatic. state department officials do amazing things to help, but they certainly could do what was definitely different from the treasury department which had the first cabinet member in place. so it is just corporate culture why they fundamentally different place and they are actively and have actively reflect the dominant. as far as i know. so, yes, sure. >> thank you for this very important and compelling work. not that the book is a most important aspect, but has there been any speculation about a movie being made about this compelling story?

>> every author casted in their head, don't you? i would love that. if you know anyone, my agent is over there. >> thank you for being articulate in your description of what you communicated in this book. i was particularly interested whether you covered any kind of fragments or events related to middle eastern jewish communities after you researched your book. >> one of the big heroes site and came gaining enough public support for the board was the man who had been born in lithuania, peterburg san, who after the war goes back to palestine coming out israel enjoys the knesset and he is a very big act to this in the u.s. during the war. he's the one who's staging the patterns and doing the full-page newspaper ads. the story of full palestine this

history is really complicated. i don't get fully into it in the book and say to rose from 1939 to 1934 how many could enter pre-state israel, enter palestine. that is mandated by the british. that supposedly limited how many people could comment on this a terrible timing 1939 to 44 to limit the number who could enter. they basically convinced the british government to not cancel it. they won't let them publicize this. but they get about 8000 jews and get them to land in turkey, cross into syria which was mandated by france and into palace nine outside of the white paper in that last year. ..

reverberate today that is with the messy origin but they are trying to negotiate out of the border countries and into palestine. 8000. >> maybe this is more technical but the outgrowth could you speak of that approach to the academic paper to the more general audience? >> my advisors here i wrote my dissertation thinking this is it the last thing i could have written but then i learn that nobody reads those pages so

then i realized there were parts in the dissertation but nobody had written it before and i thought i would put all their that way if somebody wants to know about labor life that there is a dissertation for that now but but it isn't the core story and not the people doing things but to me that is the b and tomeet is the best nonfiction tt book is the book of an agency trying different bureaucratic avenues and what they were trying to do there is more harmh than in the dissertation.tal that is the fundamental difference.

>> thematic and we were active during this time was there anyy collaboration happening?ely soms >> it had some of the best lette letterhead through donate and rescue it was very elaborate letterhead. they are one of the organization the board approaches right off to ask about what they are doini what they had been doing with the refugees to escape and help them pay for transport to the u.s. because

the board is left in baltimore -- less involved with that because the people in portugal are already safe. less when the day-to-day operations of the board it is because they have representatives that are still in enemy territory and at that point they largely didn't.e when they called us to new york in the neutral city those that thos have a degree in poland. and lines of communications be.

>> congratulations on your excellent. talk so historianst were largely thinking cut the u.s. have done more but you answer question or more usefulqn question to which do you which consider your book to answer ano what does that?ay this ishat i am hesitant when historians say this motion the goal is to say this is what did happen and these are the possibilities andv likely what would have happened had this happened you should be should be established earlier? and i would poke at that.. and say what was leverage the had?

and then to say in 1942 may tfer them to their nationalityd the board has said that maybe established earlier.t and that gives a lot of places to say they try stuff now i i wonder what would have happened had made this earlier or later? the board shuts down september 45 when 45 when there are 2 million persons in europe and when they just come out ofor fighting to be liberated then within the agency has so many fingers and the enemy territoryt what would have happened hadif

they kept going?o if we try to establish something like this now? d covered by the different agencies that have come up by the end of the war. that is. that is a very valuable question. how are we doing mom -- doing with those challenges? are we dealing with them in the right way? >> how did the board deal withrd the populace as a whole that they try to fight under thedar? radar? with those refugees coming in?

>> was the board's work he could at the time? some of it was a offering to take on gary and jews was but much of it was public you can'tj bring in refugees without mag getting life magazine involved and and to be very aware andanne with that refugee camp and to go through month are propaganda. or to make radio speeches but the radio announcer say you ares so great as a refugee board director would make your life

easier we opened refugee camp il u.s. because we ask all these other countries to take refugees we don't take any of our own. th so they plant the seeds so when they went to roosevelt they had these letters to show them ands maybe that's why they scrubbed those from sweden to prevent a scandal in the future but they didn't realize i had gotten mori than thousand papers and there were duplicates and found oututt there were not any there.he some of that is public some ofpu it was not.bl

>> do i close this? [laughter] thank you very much.

>> i am here to say jed cavanaugh you don't belong in this building is a justice with extraordinary intellect you find a character and a humility combined with strength that left me profoundly impressed. >> that brett cavanaugh served as secretary in a period of time with issues of great constitutional moments the reason why the american people have a right to know what he said how he advised the president and what he wrote. >> let's not waste any more time.

even the most committed partisans that judge kavanaugh is supremely qualified for the supreme court so stop playing politics