Why read Paper Walls?

Book cover of Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1938-1941

Book description

“Paper Walls was the first scholarly book to deal with the question of America’s response to the Nazi assault on the European Jews. A revised version of my Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University, it was originally published in 1968... Those times were very different from these. There was little public…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Paper Walls as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Rebecca Erbelding

Author

Wyman’s later book, The Abandonment of the Jews got all the attention, but Paper Walls, about how immigration to the United States actually worked and how the US government alternately tried and refused to aid Jews desperately attempting to escape increasing Nazi persecution and violence, is my go-to recommendation. If this is your family’s story, or if you want to know why Jews couldn’t just leave, Wyman’s book will explain a lot.

From Rebecca's list on The best books on the Holocaust and the United States.