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Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides

Congressman John Rankin's Remarks on the House Floor

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As the war in Europe intensified, the U.S. maintained a delicate balance between aiding the Allied cause and keeping America directly out of the conflict.

Rankin's Remarks on Neutrality
Rankin Remarks page 2

Congressman’s John Rankin’s (D-Miss) Remarks on the House floor, June, 4, 1941

Short Answer Questions

1. According to this document, what is one concern Representative Rankin expressed about Jewish refugees?

2. How did Rankin’s view reflect the broader isolationist sentiment in the U.S. at the time? 

3. Compare Rankin’s speech to the rhetoric of other American isolationists or antisemites such as Charles Lindbergh. What similarities and differences can you identify in their arguments? 

Sources

79 Cong. Rec 4726-4727 (1941) (Congressman Rankin's Remarks).