Advocate for the Doomed: the diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1932-1935
Authors: James G McDonald (James Grover), 1886-1964.Richard, Print Book©2007 Bloomington: Indiana University Press, ©2007 https://ric.on.worldcat.org/oclc/71631903 E 748 M1475 A3 2007
The private diary of James G. McDonald (1886-1964) offers a unique and hitherto unknown source on the early history of the Nazi regime and the Roosevelt administration's reactions to Nazi persecution of German Jews. Considered for the post of U.S. ambassador to Germany at the start of FDR's presidency, McDonald traveled to Germany in 1932 and met with Hitler soon after the Nazis came to power. Fearing Nazi intentions to remove or destroy Jews in Germany, in 1933 he became League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and sought aid from the international community to resettle outside the Reich Jews and others persecuted there. But McDonald met with little success. The lack of international movement on the refugee issue caused him to resign in December 1935 in protest at the lack of support for his work. Not written for publication and never revised, this diary shows McDonald in the 1930s shuttling back and forth among key political and financial authorities in the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Latin America, and the Vatican. A shrewd observer, McDonald meticulously recorded his extraordinary insights into their thoughts and motives. This invaluable, almost day-to-day record of efforts to help increasingly desperate German Jews seeking refuge will fascinate readers interested in this tragic period and will benefit scholars for generations."--Jacket.
Refugees and Rescue: the diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald,1935-1945
Authors: James G McDonald (James Grover), 1886-1964.Richard, Print Book©2009, https://ric.on.worldcat.org/oclc/244628340,
E 748 M1475 A3 2009
New evidence presented in Refugees and Rescue challenges widely held opinions about Franklin D. Roosevelt's views on the rescue of European Jews before and during the Holocaust. The struggles of presidential confidant James G. McDonald, who resigned as League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1935, and his allies to transfer many of the otherwise doomed are disclosed here for the first time. Although McDonald's efforts as chairman of FDR's advisory committee on refugees from May 1938 until nearly the end of the war were hampered by the pervasive antisemitic attitudes of those years, fears about security, and changing presidential wartime priorities, tens of thousands did find haven. McDonald's 1935–1936 diary entries and the other primary sources presented here offer new insights into these conflicts and into Roosevelt's inconsistent attitudes toward the "Jewish question" in Europe. - Amazon.com
Envoy to the Promised Land: the Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald,1948-1951
Authors: James G McDonald (James Grover), Print Book2017, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, [2017], https://ric.on.worldcat.org/oclc/985359689 DS 126.5 M215 2017
Just before Israel emerged as a state in May 1948, key United States officials hesitated and backtracked. Undersecretary of State Robert Lovett told Moshe Sharett of the Jewish Agency for Palestine that the US had expected a peaceful transition to dual states in Palestine. Now, war between Jews and Arabs and a broader regional conflict loomed. Apart from the Cold War repercussions, another mass slaughter of Jews would roil the US in a presidential election year.
James G. McDonald arrived in Israel soon after its birth, serving as US special representative and later as its first ambassador. McDonald continued his longstanding practice of dictating a diary, which remained for many decades in private hands. Here his letters, private papers, and exchanges with the US State Department and the White House are interspersed chronologically with his diary entries. Envoy to the Promised Land is a major new source for the history of US-Israeli relations.
Brilliantly describing the tense climate in Israel almost day by day, McDonald offers an in-depth portrait of key Israeli politicians and analyzes the early stages of issues that still haunt the country today: the disputed boundaries of the new state, the status of Jerusalem, questions of peace with Arab states and Israel's security, Israel's relationship with the United Nations, and the problem of Palestinian refugees. - Amazon.com