Basic Information
Name: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Nickname: FDR, New Delano
Born: January 30th, 1882
Died: April 12th, 1945
Nationality: American
Hometown: Hyde Park, New York
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: Lawyer, New York state senator, assistant secretary of the Navy, New York governor, president
Education: Groton School, Harvard University, Columbia Law School
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: James Roosevelt and Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt
Siblings: James Roosevelt Roosevelt (yeah, double Rosy)
Spouse: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
Children: Anna Eleanor, James II, Franklin, Elliott, Franklin Delano Jr., John Aspinwall
Friends: Louis Howe, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Harry Truman
Foes: Adolf Hitler, Emperor Hirohito, Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini, two-term limits
Analysis
When FDR became the 32nd president of the United States, things in America were—how shall we put this?—a total disaster. Millions of people were out of work, and the economic issues in the United States affected the economies of other countries around the world.
Sort of makes you wonder why anyone would choose to run for office, right?
But FDR did his best to make lemonade from some pretty sour lemons. He planned to get the federal government involved to fix the economy, and his New Deal plan created lots of jobs and programs that are still around today. (Thanks for Social Security, Frankie D!)
Then, he mobilized industry in the United States to stop producing watches and cars and other luxury goods in favor of supplying weapons and other munitions to our allies at the start of World War II before we eventually joined the fray and needed the weapons for ourselves.
No one denies how important FDR's work was to American success, especially in the period leading up to World War II and in the decade immediately after.
But press pause for just one second.
Yes, FDR did a lot of good. But according to Elie Wiesel in "The Perils of Indifference," FDR made one huge mistake, and that was to turn his back on millions of Jews and minorities suffering under the Nazis.
There's lots of evidence that Roosevelt and other top U.S. officials knew what was happening in Europe and knew what Hitler and the Nazis were doing to the Jews. In fact, there's still lots of debate about the Allied decision not to bomb Auschwitz-Birkenau when they received concrete proof of its existence in 1944.
Wiesel acknowledges in his speech that FDR was a great leader, that he mobilized a country still a bit dizzy from the effects of a huge economic depression, and his Lend-Lease program gave the Allies weapons that were essential to the cause. But he also acknowledges that Roosevelt didn't do enough to help the Jews and that his image in Jewish history has suffered because of it.
FDR died of a brain hemorrhage in April 1945, less than a month before the war ended in Europe and one day after Wiesel was liberated from Buchenwald. Roosevelt had a massive impact on World War II and American society in general, but in terms of his response to the suffering of the Jews, FDR left a lot to be desired.