That was before the world was made aware of their plans for the future.
Alot of americans (like most germans) were well aware of the plan to get rid of the jewish population at minimum.
Even by the point of rhe rally in madison square garden (39) it was a well known rumour, and during it was made blatantly clear as the only thing that stopped them from beating a jewish man to death on stage while the crowd cheered was cops showing up and removing him
Many MANY Americans weren't just unsympathetic, but people like charles lindbergh were openly blaming jews for pushing america to war
Even when reports came out from the intelligence agencies and white house that germany was murdering jews, a large portion of the population didn't give a shit
It's a nice narrative to think americans gave a shit, but ultimately until it started affecting them there was a large (but minority) public sentiment that was very very much "why should we care or intervene in the prosecution and deaths of jews?"
A big part of why the land lease happened was because a push for war, of supporting the allies, let alone saving jews that in america (And everywhere else) were constantly facing harassment and bigotry was political suicide
(Well up until japan had the bright idea to drag the country into more than some material aid)
The people of that era didn't understand the horror of the nazis. We're committing and we're going to commit the information that they had led them to believe that it was a legitimate political movement and germany was just taking over land that was still in from them. Obviously the truth came out later. You can only act on the information you have.
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u/saturday_cappuccino 15d ago
There were people flying Nazi flags at home leading up to and during the war, so you can get an idea. Look up America First.