The Wreckage

In the weeks following V-E Day, the Allied powers were faced with the daunting task of governing Germany and all formerly Nazi-controlled territories. Hitler was dead, the Third Reich had fallen, and it was now up to the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and France to rebuild the continent following the devastation of the war in Europe – all while the war in the Pacific continued to rage on. With Europe in ruins, the Allied nations began the work to restore systems of law, rebuild the economy, and lead the re-education of the German people. 

Throughout World War II, more than 1,000 American rabbis volunteered to serve their country through chaplaincy service, with more than 300 American Jewish chaplains entering active duty. After the war, sixty of these rabbis remained in Europe and beyond, and were among the first witnesses to the true extent of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in pursuit of “the final solution.” The work was arduous, and oftentimes at odds with American military policy, which deemed all those displaced persons who were stateless, including Jewish victims who had survived the Holocaust, “enemies of the state.” It was through advocacy, determination, and great personal risk that the rabbis were able to help displaced persons find new lives in the United States and other nations.

“In battle, you kept your wits about you. Don't relax that caution now,” warned the ominous voice-over in the 1945 training film, Your Job in Germany. “The German lust for conquest is not dead. It's merely undercover.” As the Allied powers worked to govern Europe, Jewish American GI's were stationed around the continent. As demobilization - the process of bringing American military personnel home after the war's end - escalated, the United States found itself understaffed, and many Jewish American GI's remained in Europe to support efforts to maintain order and rebuild. For those at home, programs like the GI Bill paved the way for a postwar life.  

After World War II, organizations like the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), Hadassah, and the United Service for New Americans (USNA) provided critical resources to help evacuate and resettle survivors who were living in displaced persons camps - camps that were often the very same prisons where they were incarcerated during the Holocaust. Hundreds of thousands of refugees came to the United States, Canada, Mandatory Palestine, and other communities around the world due in large part to the advocacy and efforts of these aid organizations to break past restrictive immigration quotas.  

It is estimated that after World War II, 140,000 Holocaust survivors settled in the United States. These refugees, the majority of whom were between 20 and 40 years old, largely came to the United States due to efforts from HIAS, USNA, and other organizations. Once they arrived, these survivors worked to build new careers, start families, and find community among their neighbors. Even as they acclimated, survivors faced an uphill battle as they overcame language barriers, post-traumatic stress, and remaining antisemitic and xenophobic sentiments in America.

The events of World War II and its immediate aftermath had significant influence on American Jewish political identity. In the wake of the Holocaust, and as the extent of the destruction continued to be revealed, many Jewish Americans took it upon themselves on both local and national levels to tell the story of what happened, advocate for the victims, and lobby for changes to international law to try and prevent future atrocities. Through political activism, literature, liturgy, and more, individuals such as Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-born lawyer who served on the legal team of Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal Robert H. Jackson and himself a survivor, spent the years following World War II seeking justice and remembrance for those who were lost.

On August 6, 1945, the United States became the first, and thus far only, nation to deploy the atomic bomb. After the war, “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Jewish American theoretical physicist and director of the Manhattan Project lab at Los Alamos, joined the Atomic Energy Commission, and would soon find himself at odds with his former professional ally, Lewis Strauss. This week, we're joined by Pulitzer-prize winning co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer Kai Bird.

In a 1946 letter to Secretary of State James Byrnes, President Harry Truman proclaimed, “I'm tired of babying the Soviets.” Once the United States' strongest anti-Fascist ally, the Soviet Union was rapidly becoming its greatest enemy, and fears that the Soviets would have access to atomic weapons led to an unprecedented era of paranoia and spying. Oppenheimer was not the only Jewish American to be a target of anti-Communist proceedings, and as Communism continued to spread across Europe and Asia, suspicion at home only continued to escalate. This week we're joined by Dr. Jonathan Brent, CEO of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

World War II and the Holocaust were turning points for American Jews, shaping Jewish American identity, memory, and culture for generations. In this bonus episode, taped live with a studio audience at Sound Lounge in New York City, acclaimed writer Julie Salamon hosts a panel discussion that delves into the anxieties, cultural shifts, and reactions to global events in the postwar years. This episode features historian and author of GI Jews Deborah Dash Moore, historian and author of Black Power, Jewish Politics Marc Dollinger, and AJHS executive director and writer of The Wreckage Gemma R. Birnbaum.

In 1938, as fascism continued to spread across Europe and Asia, the Dies Committee was formed to investigate “subversive activities” within the United States. The committee, headed by Texas Democrat Martin Dies, was tasked with targeting Nazi sympathizers, but soon shifted its primary focus to rooting out those they believed to have communist ties, and paved the way for a second American red scare. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Matthew Dallek, author of Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right. Episode Image: American Nazi Party marches in support of HUAC. From the Abraham Shoenfeld Papers at AJHS, P-884 The Wreckage is part of the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.

The film, television, and theater industries were represented by some of the largest unions in the United States, and in the late 1940s, with the full cooperation of Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan, organizations like the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Values sought to root out what they deemed the communist threat in entertainment. Unions from other industries were also targeted, and a narrative that communist infiltration was the true root cause of contemporary labor conflicts was embraced by a number of American politicians. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Thomas Doherty, author of Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist.  Image: Strikers on the picket line at Warner Bros., in the early morning hours before violence broke out, October 5, 1945. Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images The Wreckage is part of the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.

In November 1947, ten Hollywood writers and directors were cited for contempt of court for their refusal to testify before HUAC. Criminal charges were issued against the group that would become known as “the Hollywood Ten,” and the first systematic Hollywood blacklist had begun. Of the ten, six were Jewish - John Howard Lawson, Herbert Biberman, Alvah Bessie, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, and Lester Cole - as were many of the studio executives who voted to blacklist them. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Thomas Doherty, author of Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist. Image: Anticommunist group protests the release of "Exodus" in 1960, written by Hollywood Ten "unfriendly" Dalton Trumbo. From the Abraham Shoenfeld Papers at AJHS, P-884. The Wreckage is part of the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.

College professors and other educators were among those targeted by anti-communists, but the search for Communist Party members in the U.S. education system began much earlier. The so-called “Red-ucators” were among the first deemed subversives, and Harvard University, City College of New York, and many other schools were rocked by hundreds of subpoenas, calling them to testify in front of special committees that were formed to weed out communists in education. Morris Schappes, an English professor in the CUNY system and member of the American Communist Party, was one of these educators, and became a prominent symbol of the quest to purge school systems of subversives. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Gemma R. Birnbaum, executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society. Image: May Day Labor Parade, New York College Teachers Union 1930's - 1940's. From the Morris U. Schappes Papers at AJHS, P-57. The Wreckage is part of the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.

On April 5, 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death under the Espionage Act of 1917. The couple was accused of spying for the Soviet Union and providing classified information about nuclear weapons, radar, sonar, and jet propulsion engines. The trial, which was presided over by Judge Irving Robert Kaufman, captured international attention. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Martin J. Siegel, author of Judgment and Mercy: The Turbulent Life and Times of the Judge Who Condemned the Rosenbergs.   Image: Cover of Brochure produced by the National Committee to Secure Justice for Morton Sobell in the Rosenberg Case, circa 1954. From the Committee to Free Morton Sobell Collection at AJHS, I-356.   The Wreckage is part of the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.

In the spring of 1954, the blustering anticommunist crusader, Senator Joseph McCarthy, set his sights on a new target: the United States Army, alleging Communist infiltration of the Army Signal Corps lab at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey - the same lab where Julius Rosenberg had once worked. In turn, the Army accused McCarthy of using his position to pressure them into giving preferential treatment to his former aide, G. David Schine. The hearings, which were televised live on ABC and the DuMont network, and watched by an estimated 80 million people, unveiled to the nation the true cost of McCarthy's crusade. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Larry Tye, author of Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Image: Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn, Library of Congress. The Wreckage is made possible by funding from the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided through the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.  

By 1957, Joseph McCarthy was dead and HUAC's power and influence was on the decline, with former President Harry Truman calling it “the most un-American thing in the country today.” Increasingly, organizations and individuals alike began to speak out against the committee, but rather than back down, committee members escalated their targeting of activist groups and individuals, with particular emphasis on Civil Rights leaders. As the Red Scare continued unabated, prominent Jewish and Black activists found themselves subjected to a new level of interrogation and scrutiny. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Dr. Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia Journalism School and scholar of the Cold War. Image: Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin at the Montgomery March, 1965. From the American Jewish Congress records at the American Jewish Historical Society, I-77. The Wreckage is made possible by funding from the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided through the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.

HUAC's continued targeting of activists spread to Jewish Americans and others at the forefront of the anti-Vietnam War movement. In 1967 - a year that would become one of the deadliest for U.S. military casualties as more than 11,000 American soldiers perished - counterculture activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were among those subpoenaed. In response, Hoffman and Rubin were openly defiant, and their highly visible antics, which included arriving dressed in outrageous costumes and waving toy guns, helped to further erode the public's trust in the committee. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Gemma R. Birnbaum, executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society. Episode Image: Yippie activists Abbie Hoffman (left) and Jerry Rubin arrive at the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearing October 1, 1968 investigating the clashes at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Photograph by Joseph Silverman. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post. The Wreckage is made possible by funding from the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided through the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.

During this bonus episode, taped live at the Angelika Film Center in downtown Manhattan in a send-up to the Hollywood Ten, writer and critic Julie Salamon returns to The Wreckage to host New York Times editor/reporter and historian Clay Risen and AJHS executive director Gemma R. Birnbaum. Risen's new book, Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America, provided an excellent framework for the discussion. Our deep appreciation to Rebecca Naomi Jones, who has once again brought life to the archives this season, and with her immense talent and empathetic storytelling, took our listeners on a riveting journey through one of the most tumultuous times in US history.  Additional thanks to Matthew Dallek, Thomas Doherty, Martin J. Siegel, Larry Tye, Jelani Cobb, Clay Risen, and Julie Salamon for being part of our season. The Wreckage is made possible by funding from the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided through the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.