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59-677: There was increasing and persistent significant publicity and pressure on the Roosevelt administration to help the abandoned Jews of Europe. The campaign was led by the Bergson Group led by Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson). The activist group had significant support by many leading senators and congressmen mostly from states without significant Jewish voters, from Eleanor Roosevelt , famous Hollywood and Broadway personalities and other prominent citizens. President Roosevelt acted after considerable additional pressure from his friend, Secretary of

118-554: A 14-part message from the Japanese government that officially notified of a breakdown in negotiations. The United States had broken Japanese encryption , and Hull knew the message contents. He blasted the diplomats: "In all my fifty years of public service, I have never seen such a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehood and distortion." Hull chaired the Advisory Committee on Postwar Foreign Policy , which

177-614: A letter of protest to Berlin, which elicited an "explanation" but no apology. In 1938, Hull engaged in a dialog with Mexican Foreign Minister Eduardo Hay concerning the failure of Mexico to compensate Americans who lost farmlands during agrarian reforms in the late 1920s. He insisted that compensation must be "prompt, adequate and effective". Though the Mexican Constitution guaranteed compensation for expropriation or nationalization , nothing had yet been paid. While Hay admitted Mexico's responsibility, he replied that there

236-700: A license for relief funds to help Jews escape Romania and France. While the Treasury Department had granted the World Jewish Congress permission to send the money to Switzerland in July 1943, the State Department used various excuses, delaying permission until December, a full eight months after the program was first proposed. Josiah DuBois also found evidence that the State Department had actively tried to suppress information about

295-697: A series of meetings, Morgenthau agreed to take his staff's concerns to the President. Morgenthau, Paul, and Pehle met with President Roosevelt in the White House on Sunday, January 16, 1944. Roosevelt got an oral briefing on the facts and conclusions in the Treasury Department's memorandum, and immediately agreed to deal with the issues by creating a War Refugee Board, consisting of three cabinet members, Secretary of State Cordell Hull , Secretary Morgenthau, and Secretary of War Henry Stimson (Morgenthau had suggested that instead of Stimson, Leo Crowley, Director of

354-490: A staff lawyer, Josiah E. DuBois Jr. , investigated how and why the license had been held up. In their research, which was aided by some whistleblowers in the State Department, they discovered that in addition to blocking licenses for use of money to aid refugees, the State Department had also sent foreign missions orders not to forward information about Nazi atrocities—specifically about the Holocaust—to Washington. At

413-513: Is "no rule universally accepted in theory nor carried out in practice which makes obligatory the payment of immediate compensation...." The so-called "Hull formula" has been adopted in many treaties concerning international investment but is still controversial, especially in Latin American countries, which have historically subscribed to the Calvo doctrine , which suggests that compensation

472-615: Is buried in the vault of the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea in the Washington National Cathedral. Hull's memory is preserved by Cordell Hull Dam on the Cumberland River near Carthage, Tennessee . The dam impounds Cordell Hull Lake , covering approximately 12,000 acres (49 km ). His law school, Cumberland School of Law , continues to honor him with a Cordell Hull Speaker's Forum and

531-755: Is to be decided by the host country and that as long as there is equality between nationals and foreigners and no discrimination, there can be no claim in international law. The tension between the Hull formula and the Calvo doctrine is still important in the law of international investment. Hull pursued the " Good Neighbor Policy " with Latin American nations, which has been credited with preventing Nazi subterfuge in that region. Hull and Roosevelt also maintained relations with Vichy France , which Hull credited with allowing General Henri Giraud 's forces to join allied forces in

590-807: The American Jewish Congress , and Peter Bergson and the Emergency Committee to Save the Jews of Europe . Two Congressional resolutions had been introduced in November 1943, calling on Roosevelt to create a commission to formulate and effectuate plans for the relief and rescue of Jews. The Senate was scheduled to vote on the resolution in late January; the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held hearings, and testimony from these hearings further discredited Breckinridge Long of

649-1087: The International Red Cross to detainees in Nazi concentration camps and supplemented these private projects with a food-parcel program of its own financed from the emergency funds of the president. Through the efforts of the War Refugee Board, refugee camps were prepared in North Africa and safe haven was arranged in Palestine , Switzerland, and Sweden. In August 1944 the WRB brought 982 Jewish refugees, who were in Italy from many countries, to The Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego , in New York. These refugees were admitted outside

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708-611: The London Economic Conference , which then collapsed when Roosevelt rejected its main plans. In 1943, Hull served as United States delegate to the Moscow Conference . At all times, his main objective was to enlarge foreign trade and lower tariffs. The more important issue of the American role in World War II was handled by Roosevelt who worked through Sumner Welles , the second-ranking official at

767-596: The Moot Court Room. A statue of Hull graces the campus of Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park , near Byrdstown, Tennessee , was established in 1997 to preserve Hull's birthplace and various personal effects Hull had donated to the citizens of Pickett County , including his Nobel Peace Prize. A segment of Kentucky highway routes 70 , 90 , 63 , and 163 , from Mammoth Cave National Park near Cave City south to

826-654: The North African campaign against Germany and Italy. Hull also handled formal statements with foreign governments. Notably he sent the Hull note just prior to the Pearl Harbor attack , which was formally titled "Outline of proposed Basis for Agreement Between The United States and Japan." Hull received news of the attack while he was outside his office. The Japanese ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura and Japan's special envoy Saburō Kurusu were waiting to see Hull with

885-684: The SS Quanza , to receive visas to enter the U.S. Through her efforts, the Jewish refugees disembarked on September 11, 1940, in Virginia. In a similar incident, American Jews sought to raise money to prevent the mass murder of Romanian Jews but were blocked by the State Department. "In wartime, in order to send money out of the United States, two government agencies had to sign a simple release—the Treasury Department under Henry Morgenthau and

944-748: The Spanish–American War , he served in Cuba as a captain in the Fourth Regiment of the Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. Hull was elected to the United States House of Representatives where he served 11 terms (1907–1921 and 1923–1931) totaling 22 years. As a member of the powerful Ways and Means committee , he fought for low tariffs and claimed authorship of the federal income tax laws of 1923 and 1926 and

1003-484: The inheritance tax of 1926. He also served as a local judge from 1913 to 1917. After his defeat in the congressional election of 1920, he served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee . He was one of several candidates for president at the 1928 Democratic National Convention , which ultimately chose Al Smith as nominee. Hull was influential in advising Albert Gore, Sr. to run for

1062-541: The "so-called Secretary of State ". The islands remained under the Free French until the end of the war. Hull, who always held de Gaulle in disregard, if not detestation, even before the incident, would never cease trying to maneuver against him during the rest of the war. In 1939, Hull advised Roosevelt to reject the SS St. Louis , a German ocean liner carrying 936 Jews seeking asylum from Germany. Hull's decision sent

1121-576: The Foreign Economic Administration be appointed, but Roosevelt decided to appoint Stimson instead.) On January 22, 1944, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9417 creating the Board. The Treasury Department did not act in a vacuum. By the end of 1943, Roosevelt was also getting intense pressure to act on the issue from members of Congress, including Sol Bloom and Emanuel Celler ; Jewish organizations, most notably Stephen Wise and

1180-568: The Holocaust Cordell Hull Cordell Hull (October 2, 1871 – July 23, 1955) was an American politician from Tennessee and the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of State , holding the position for 11 years (1933–1944) in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during most of World War II . Before that appointment, Hull represented Tennessee for two years in

1239-688: The Holocaust began to reach the United States, Kook's Bergson Group shifted efforts from trying to create a Jewish army to rescuing Jews in Europe. This included putting full-page advertisements in leading newspapers, such as "Jews Fight for the Right to Fight", published in The New York Times in 1942, and "For Sale to Humanity 70,000 Jews, Guaranteed Human Beings at $ 50 a Piece", in response to an offer by Romania to send their Jews to safety if

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1298-767: The Hungarian government and putting pressure on them, the WRB contributed to the cessation of deportations of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz, possibly saving many of the Jews of Budapest . The Board sent the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg , and others to protect the Jews of Budapest. Through the WRB, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (the Joint ,) funded Wallenberg's rescue work there. The work by Wallenberg in Hungary

1357-686: The Jews back to Europe on the eve of the Holocaust . Some historians estimate that 254 of the passengers were ultimately murdered by the Nazis. Okay ...there were two conversations on the subject between (Secretary of the Treasury) Morgenthau and Secretary of State Cordell Hull. In the first, 3:17 PM on 5 June 1939, Hull made it clear to Morgenthau that the passengers could not legally be issued U.S. tourist visas as they had no return addresses. Furthermore, Hull made it clear to Morgenthau that

1416-606: The Roosevelt administration to save Jews from the Nazi genocide in Europe. The group was active in the United States between 1940 and 1948. Founded by Hillel Kook , who had the pseudonym "Peter H. Bergson", the Bergson Group was a group formed during the Holocaust to advocate for the fight against Nazis and for rescuing Jews. The Bergson Group was initially composed of ten Irgun activists from Europe, America and Palestine, including Aryeh Ben-Eliezer, Yitzhak Ben-Ami, Alexander Rafaeli, Shmuel Merlin, and Eri Jabotinsky, and

1475-540: The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, and a staff, mainly pulled from inside the Treasury Department. Though they were officially restricted to a maximum staff of thirty, some government employees (including Pehle) were considered "detailed" to the WRB, raising their staff to seventy in the summer of 1944. Brigadier General William O'Dwyer later succeeded Pehle as executive director until its dissolution at

1534-547: The State Department under Secretary Cordell Hull. Morgenthau signed immediately. The State Department delayed, delayed, and delayed, as more Jews were dying in the Transnistria camps." In 1940, Jewish representatives in the USA lodged an official complaint against the discriminatory policies the State Department was using against the Jews. The results were fatal: Hull gave strict orders to every USA consulate worldwide forbidding

1593-483: The State Department. Establishment of the Board was thanks to the team at the Treasury Deportment and relentless long-term information campaign and pressure by Hillel Kook's high-level rescue activist group. John W. Pehle, the assistant to the secretary of treasury, was appointed executive director of the board, which was directly responsible to the president. Its members included the Secretary of State,

1652-463: The State Department. Hull did not attend the summit meetings that Roosevelt had with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin . In 1943, Hull finally destroyed Welles's career by threatening to expose his homosexuality. In a speech in 1937, New York City Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia said that brown-shirted Nazis ought to be featured as the "climax" of a chamber of horrors in the upcoming World's Fair . The Nazi government organ, Der Angriff , called

1711-745: The Tennessee State Line near Hestand , is named "Cordell Hull Highway", and is part of that state's scenic byway system . The Cordell Hull Building , on Capital Hill in Nashville, Tennessee, is a secure 10-story building that contains the offices of the Tennessee Legislature . The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (formerly the Old Executive Office Building) in Washington, DC, next to

1770-628: The Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. and his team at the Treasury. Roosevelt "stressed that it was urgent that action be taken at once to forestall the plan of the Nazis to exterminate all the Jews and other persecuted minorities in Europe". The WRB was created when a group of young Treasury Department lawyers, including John Pehle , Ansel Luxford , and Josiah E. DuBois Jr. , grew frustrated by State Department delays surrounding

1829-573: The Treasury Department issued a license to the World Jewish Congress to use funds in the United States to pay some of the costs of evacuating Jews from Romania and France. (This should not be confused with another initiative, by the Romanian government, to "sell" Jews for approximately $ 50 a head, with which it had no connection.) Various State Department officials delayed the license for the next five months. Treasury officials, led by

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1888-551: The Treasury Department's office of Foreign Funds Control and its chief, John W. Pehle. Pehle's office had authorized a number of charitable groups to use funds in the U.S. regulated under the Trading with the Enemy Act to pay for food, medicine, and other aid to refugees and other civilian victims of the war in Europe. Those efforts were systematically blocked by some officials in the U.S. State Department. Specifically, in July 1943,

1947-506: The U.S. Congress in 1938. Hull recorded twenty-five years of combined service in the House and the Senate. Hull won election to the Senate in 1930, but resigned from it in 1933 to become Secretary of State. Hull became one of Roosevelt's strongest Southern allies during the 1932 presidential campaign. Roosevelt named him Secretary of State and appointed him to lead the American delegation to

2006-731: The United States Senate and 22 years in the House of Representatives. Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations , and was referred to by President Roosevelt as the "Father of the United Nations". Cordell Hull was born in a log cabin in Olympus, Tennessee , which is now part of Pickett County, Tennessee , but was then part of Overton County . He

2065-408: The War Refugee Board, issuing Executive Order 9417. Credited with rescuing tens of thousands of Jews from Nazi-occupied countries, through the efforts of Raoul Wallenberg and others, the War Refugee Board is the only major civilian effort undertaken by the United States government to save the lives of Jews during the Holocaust. The immediate cause for Roosevelt's action was pressure from the staff of

2124-544: The White House, contains the ornately decorated "Cordell Hull Room" on the second floor, which is used for meetings. The room was Cordell Hull's office when he served as U.S. Secretary of State. Cordell Hull Park, located at 13415 Warren Avenue in the East Garrison neighborhood, an unincorporated area of Monterey County, California, is approximately 0.75-acre in size and contains a basketball court, playground, and

2183-565: The age of 16. At the age of 19, Hull became the elected chairman of the Clay County Democratic Party . Hull studied at National Normal University (later merged with Wilmington College, Ohio ) from 1889 until 1890. In 1891, he graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University and was admitted to the bar. Hull served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1893 until 1897. During

2242-604: The age of 45, in 1917, Hull married a widow, Rose Frances (Witz) Whitney (1875–1954), of an Austrian Jewish family of Staunton, Virginia. The couple had no children. Mrs. Hull died at age 79, in Staunton, Virginia , in 1954. She is buried in Washington D.C. at Washington National Cathedral . Hull died on July 23, 1955, at age 83, at his home in Washington, D.C., after a lifelong struggle with familial remitting-relapsing sarcoidosis (often confused with tuberculosis ). He

2301-433: The creation of the Monuments Men to save European art in June 1943, at a time when the Roosevelt Administration was rejecting calls to save Jews who were being exterminated on an industrial scale by the Nazis , the Bergson Group took out full page ads the New York Times questioning the Roosevelt administration’s priorities. Rescue of Jews during the Holocaus t United States and the Holocaust International response to

2360-405: The development of a world organization to prevent a third World War. Hull and his staff drafted the " Charter of the United Nations " in mid-1943. Hull resigned on November 30, 1944, due to failing health. To this day he remains the longest-serving US Secretary of State, having served for eleven years and nine months in the post. Roosevelt described Hull upon his departure as "the one person in all

2419-504: The end of 1943, DuBois wrote a memorandum, "Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews", which said the State Department was "guilty not only of gross procrastination and willful failure to act, but even of willful attempts to prevent action from being taken to rescue Jews from Hitler". DuBois took his memorandum to Treasury General Counsel Randolph E. Paul , who agreed to put his signature on it and forward it to Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. After

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2478-511: The end of World War II. The Board appointed representatives in Turkey , Switzerland , Sweden , Portugal , Great Britain , Italy , and North Africa . The WRB developed and implemented various plans and programs for: The War Refugee Board enlisted the cooperation of foreign governments and international refugee and rescue organizations in carrying out these functions. Such neutral countries as Switzerland , Sweden , and Turkey were of particular importance, serving as bases of operation for

2537-420: The end of his life, WRB director Pehle described the work as "too little, too late" in contrast with the totality of the Holocaust . With the close of the war in Europe, the work of the board was at an end. By the terms of Executive Order No. 9614 the board was abolished on September 15, 1945. Bergson Group The Bergson Group was group of Jewish activitists whose actions included trying to convince

2596-441: The immigration quota laws, but given no status, and it was intended that they would be repatriated to their home countries at a (successful) war's end. The WRB used the example of Fort Ontario to influence other countries to also allow additional refugees over their borders. The WRB lobbied Roosevelt to publicly condemn the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis, which he did on March 24, 1944. By attracting international attention to

2655-434: The issue at hand was between the Cuban government and the passengers. The U.S., in effect, had no role. In the second conversation at 3:54 PM on June 6, 1939, Morgenthau said they did not know where the ship was and he inquired whether it was "proper to have the Coast Guard look for it". Hull responded by saying that he didn't see any reason why it could not. Hull then informed him that he did not think that Morgenthau would want

2714-489: The issuing of visas to Jews ... At the same time a Jewish congressman petitioned Roosevelt, requesting his permission to allow twenty thousand Jewish children from Europe to enter the USA. The President did not respond to the petition. Hull was the underlying force and architect in the creation of the United Nations , as recognized by the 1945 Nobel Prize for Peace, an honor for which Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated him. During World War II, Hull and Roosevelt had worked toward

2773-419: The mayor a "Jewish Ruffian" who had been bribed by Jewish and Communistic agents and was a criminal disguised as an officeholder. In the ensuing exchanges, Hull sent a letter of regret to Berlin for intemperate comments on both sides, but he also explained the principle of freedom of speech. As the response of Nazi propaganda organs rose in pitch to include characterizing American women as "prostitutes," Hull sent

2832-429: The murder of the Jews from reaching the United States. When the Treasury staff learned of the State Department obstructions, they submitted a Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of this Government to the Murder of the Jews , first drafted by DuBois, aiming to convince Morgenthau to meet with the President. Morgenthau, John Pehle, and Randolph Paul met with Roosevelt on January 16, 1944, where he agreed to create

2891-534: The rescue and relief program. The Vatican rendered some assistance, mostly towards the very end of the war, primarily as a channel of communication to enemy regimes, such as the fascist government of Slovakia . The board obtained the cooperation of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees , the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration , and the International Committee of the Red Cross in rehabilitating and resettling refugees, finding temporary shelters for rescued victims, transporting these victims to

2950-439: The rescue of persecuted peoples living under Nazi control. Under this licensing policy, it was possible to communicate with persons in enemy territory and to finance rescue operations with certain controls designed to bring no financial benefit to the enemy. Approximately $ 15 million in private funds was made available in this way. The board obtained blockade clearances for food shipments of private relief agencies for distribution by

3009-409: The search for the ship to get into the newspapers. Morgenthau said "Oh no. No, no. They would just—oh, they might send a plane to do patrol work. There would be nothing in the papers." Hull responded "Oh, that would be all right." In September 1940, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt maneuvered with another State Department official to bypass Hull's refusal to allow Jewish refugees aboard a Portuguese ship,

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3068-422: The shelters and providing for their maintenance in transit, and making relief deliveries inside enemy territory. The WRB worked closely with private U.S. relief agencies in formulating, financing, and executing plans and projects. A Treasury Department licensing policy that permitted established private agencies to transfer funds from the United States to their representatives in neutral countries aided in financing

3127-425: The ship Hopewell and fought in the Virginia Militia. Hull's mother's family (Riley-Wood) had numerous ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. Hull devoted a section in his memoirs "Cabin on the Hill" to dispelling an old rumor that his father was part Cherokee Indian, and subsequent documented family history has confirmed his ancestry. Hull attended college from 1889 until 1890. He gave his first speech at

3186-525: The travel expenses would be provided. On March 9, 1943, the Group produced a huge pageant in Madison Square Garden written by Ben Hecht, titled "We Will Never Die", in memory of the 2,000,000 European Jews who the Nazis had already murdered in the ongoing Holocaust. The performance was seen by forty thousand people its first night, and it travelled to five other cities including Washington, D.C., where First Lady Eleanor Roosevel t, six Supreme Court Justices, and some 300 senators and congressmen watched it. After

3245-467: The world who has done his most to make this great plan for peace (the United Nations) an effective fact". The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Hull with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 in recognition of his efforts for peace and understanding in the Western Hemisphere , his trade agreements, and his work to establish the United Nations. In January 1948, Hull published his two-volume memoirs, an excerpt from which appeared in The New York Times . At

3304-482: Was closely involved with Jewish and Zionist advocacy groups, such as the American Friends for a Jewish Palestine and the Organizing Committee of Illegal Immigration. The group founded the Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews, whose goal was the formation of an Allied fighting force of stateless and Palestinian Jews. Two American members of the Bergson Group were author and screenwriter Ben Hecht and cartoonist Arthur Szyk . As information about

3363-430: Was created in February 1942. When the Free French Forces of Charles de Gaulle occupied the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon , south of Newfoundland , in December 1941, Hull lodged a very strong protest and went as far as referring to the Gaullist naval forces as "the so-called Free French." His request to have the Vichy governor reinstated was met with strong criticism in the American press: newspapers mocked

3422-465: Was one of the most successful and important rescue efforts by the War Refugee Board. It is difficult to determine the exact number of Jews rescued by the War Refugee Board, since so much of their work was done behind enemy lines and involved psychological warfare and other intangible rescue activities. One historian, David Wyman, credits them with saving as many as 200,000 people; the WRB staff themselves estimated they saved tens of thousands. However, near

3481-539: Was the third of the five sons of William Paschal Hull (1840–1923) and Mary Elizabeth Hull (née Riley) (1841–1903). His brothers were named Orestes (1868), Sanadius (1870), Wyoming (1875), and Roy (1881). According to John Gunther, Hull's father had tracked down and killed a man because of a blood feud . His mother was a descendant of Isaac Riley, who was granted 200 acres (0.81 km ) in near Byrdstown in Pickett County, for Revolutionary War service, as well as Samuel Wood who emigrated from Leicestershire , England on

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