The U.S. State Department failed to act after it was warned in 1940 that Hitler had authorized the extermination of thousands of physically and mentally ill Germans, according to documents found by the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center. Had the United States protested, “it would have startled Hitler and upset his policies,” according to the center’s founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier. “It may have given Hitler second thoughts about his `Final Solution’ against the Jews.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
