We can’t forget that the U.S. had just finished a long and horrible world war (against Germany) and was war-weary (kind of like we are today). The American people, for the most part, did not WANT to get involved with any war that didn’t concern them directly (kind of like today). There was a definite libertarian feeling in the country, the feeling that we need to let other countries deal with their own strife while we mind our own business. If you read articles from that time, you will see that staying out of the war was the majority opinion among the people at that time.
Another reason why we didn’t get involved is that for the first few years of Hitler’s rule in Germany, his country was booming economically and many Germans were happy! I’ve heard and read several historians who say that had Hitler died before the invasion of the Rhineland and Poland, he would have gone down in history as one of the greatest German statesmen, if not the greatest, ever. When various diplomats visited Germany, they were treated to wonderful hospitality (gemutlichkeit!) and came away with the impression that Germany was doing great and that Hitler had saved the country.
And finally, as I said before, many Europeans really weren’t concerned with the plight of the Jews and believed that they needed to be “gone” one way or another, and many Americans weren’t particularly concerned either. Again, they considered this to be an internal issue and that we had no business interfering with other countries, even if their policies seemed barbaric (sounds like today).
There were a few people who weren’t fooled. Churchill was one of them, but everyone in England thought he was crazy. And there were small pockets of resistance in Germany, but again, no one paid much attention to them as things were going so well.
Honestly, this whole thing sounds like today. We didn’t learn much, did we? Of course, the way history is taught in schools and colleges today, the younger people are probably learning and propagating inaccuracies about WWII.
