“‘Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? [...] If you prick us, do we not bleed?’” inquires Shylock, a Jew persecuted for his religious beliefs, in an incident featured in Shakespeare’s, The Merchant of Venice. Historically, members of the jewish religion faced oppression, mistreatment and victimization at the hands of antisemites. The holocaust is an example on the largest scale of such harassment. Millions of Jews were murdered leaving a scar on the history of the human race. Yet, certain groups rose up against the cruel reign of Hitler to stand up for what is right. One such group, or better yet, country, was the United States of America, taking in almost twenty seven thousand Jewish refugees, and aiding …show more content…
In an incident in June of 1939, the St. Louis ocean liner carrying almost one-thousand jewish passengers seeking refuge in the United States was, “‘turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe’” leading to “‘more than a quarter,’” of the passengers dying in the holocaust. Lamentably, two hundred and fifty more deaths occurred; Two hundred and fifty human lives sacrificed, that could have been saved with the simple action of welcoming the desperate into the United States.The reason that the government officials decided not to refuge these people is because of deeply rooted fear. Certain individuals were afraid of spies and in turn, thousands of innocent Jews were rejected, which practically sentenced them to death.Conveying this notion, In 1944, the Treasury Department released a statement by Randolph Paul reading that certain individuals too out, “wilful attempts to prevent action from being taken to rescue Jews from Hitler.” Once fear seeps into the minds of people, their morals become irrelevant. The mistake of allowing this to happen, and in turn affecting thousands of innocent people, is the mistake that humans are obligated to learn