ER told a friend that World
War II filled her with a sense of responsibility
she could never fulfill. Consequently, ER increased
her already
daunting pace to one that amazed reporters, admirals, defense
workers, and soldiers. Her wartime work can be divided
into
three categories: refugee issues, homefront issues, and
soldiers' concerns.
Refugees: Well before the United States
entered the war, ER worked to make it easier for refugees
from Hitler's Germany to enter the country, but there was
stiff resistance to changing America's strict immigration
laws. She served as both an official and unofficial advisor
to groups trying to aid refugees from the Spanish
Civil War. After Kristallnacht,
she worked with the
Emergency Rescue Committee, the U.S.
Committee for the Care of European Children, and the
Children's Crusade for Children. She also offered key
support
to Varian
Fry's rescue operations. Her support for refugee work
was so public that she received hundreds of petitions
from
people trying to enter the United States. She was able
to help in individual cases, but the laws remained the
same.
She lobbied diligently for the Child Refugee Bill, which
would have allowed 10,000 Jewish children a year for
two
years to enter the United States above the usual German
quota, but Congress refused to pass the bill. When the
United
States entered the war in December 1941, she continued
to advocate a more open policy and to assist individual
refugees to gain admittance to the country. She spoke out
forcefully against the restrictive visa policies of
Breckinridge Long and worked with Assistant Secretary
of State Sumner
Welles to issue more entrance visas. She never achieved
all that she wanted. Her critics within the administration
and FDR's critics within Congress united to oppose new
refugee policy.
The Homefront: ER believed that promoting
democracy at home and keeping up people's spirits
was a vital part of the war effort. She thought the
major lesson of
World War I
was that we won the war, but "lost the peace." She
told Americans that we had forgotten what we were
for and focused instead on what we were against. Throughout
WWII, even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, she
remained determined to do all that she could to promote
democracy and shore up morale so that we would not
make the same mistake.
ER did this in many ways. (1) She strongly supported women
working outside the home and urged their employment in defense
industries. When women workers had trouble finding child
care and adequate pay, ER lobbied to have day care centers
and take-out kitchens within various factories, and spoke
out strongly in favor of equal pay for equal work. (2) She
played a key role in convincing FDR to establish the Fair
Employment Practices Commission, which outlawed racial
discrimination in industries that received federal contracts,
urged equal treatment for blacks in the military, and helped
to ensure that black units, such as the Tuskegee
Airmen, had the opportunity to engage in combat.
(3) She urged citizens to accept volunteer assignments
and tried to make those assignments useful. FDR wanted her
to be deputy director of the Office
of Civilian Defense, but
Harry Hopkins and Anna
Rosenberg had to convince her to take the position.
She soon became a target for criticism and resigned. She
felt she could be more effective in an unofficial capacity.
(4) She continued to press FDR to act on the issues with
which she was concerned, and warned him when Congress began
to attack programs they valued.
ER also used the radio to boost American morale and to
urge her listeners to remember that in these dangerous,
uncertain times, Americans must take strength from each
other and rededicate themselves to democracy. In fact, ER
addressed the nation the day Pearl Harbor was attacked.
To read her address,
click here.
Soldier Morale: ER felt that she could
never thank soldiers enough for the sacrifices they made.
She even carried a prayer in her
wallet encouraging her "to remember that somewhere someone
died for me today" and "to ask am I worth dying for."
Her work for soldiers took several forms. She corresponded
with several soldiers and became their "pen pals." They
responded honestly to her questions and she helped get
their
issues addressed. For example, when officers always got
the best seats at the USO shows, ER worked to arrange
a
more just seating plan. She also thought the letter FDR
sent to families of soldiers killed in battle was too
cold
and helped rewrite it. She would use "My Day" to put soldiers'
concerns before the public and Congress. But, perhaps,
her
most important contribution was the kindness and support
she gave the thousands of soldiers she met on her trips
to military bases at home, in
England, and in the South Pacific. (Click here
to read Admiral
Halsey's report on ER's activities in New Zealand.)
When she returned from her sixteen-week trip to the Pacific,
she wrote a nine-page report to the Red Cross evaluating
all the facilities she visited.
Sources:
Black, Allida M. Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt
and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1996, 89-174.
Lash, Joseph. Eleanor and Franklin. New York:
W.W. Norton & Company,
1971, passim.
