Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 3

by Blanche Wiesen Cook

  “immediately endangered political”: Varian Fry’s Papers are at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University; see esp. Karen Greenberg, ed., Archives of the Holocaust, vol. 5, Columbia University Library, selected documents from the Varian Fry Papers and the Fort Critario Emergency Refugee Shelter Papers.

  “Is there no way”: ER to Sumner Welles, 6 September 1940. See also correspondence from Karl Frank to ER, 15, 21, and 30 August 1940, box 1551.

  “is holding up”: Frank Kingdon to ER, 20 September 1940.

  “disloyal to the Reich”: In 1934, ER read Lion Feuchtwanger’s prophetic book about the Nazi regime The Oppermanns, published in English by Ben Huebsch of Viking, and in ten other languages. Written to stir concerned people beyond indifference and passivity to the most intense Nazi cruelties faced by Jews and anti-Hitler democrats, it was a highly regarded best-seller—which failed nevertheless to diminish the appeasement policies that insured Hitler’s unimpeded march across Europe for six years.

  They had left Marseilles: Alma Mahler described their journey in And the Bridge Is Love; see Keegan, Bride of the Wind, 279–80. See also Peter Jungk, Franz Werfel, 154–64, 170–73; Marino, Quiet American, 68–76.

  The Blue Angel: Steven Bach, Marlene Dietrich, 6–7, 106–21.

  But Heinrich Mann: Retirement folder, Peter Pratt Papers.

  “pioneers” at Sosúa: Marian Kaplan, Dominican Haven, 49–54. See “On Arrivals,” New York Tribune, 14 October 1940, “Writers Fleeing Nazis Here by ‘Under ground,’” in Werfel, “Heinrich Mann, Golo Mann, among 15 Who Escaped France”; New York Times, 14 October 1940, “Authors Who Fled Nazis Arrive.”

  “get this cleared up”: ER to FDR, 28 September 1940, in Breitman and Kraut, American Refugee Policy, 129–33.

  “At a stroke”: Marc Bloch, Strange Defeat. See Carole Fink, Marc Bloch: A Life in History. See also Carmen Callil, Bad Faith.

  “The war is won!”: Gilbert, Second World War, 130–34; and Gilbert, Finest Hour: 1939–1941, 888.

  “The world Cause”: Churchill cable to FDR, 27 October 1940.

  “Suppose my neighbor’s”: FDR, Press Conference on Lend-Lease, 17 December 1940, in Rauch, FDR: Selected Speeches, 268–71.

  “The Nazi masters”: FDR, “Fireside Chat on National Security” (“Arsenal of Democracy” speech), 29 December 1940, in Zevin, Nothing to Fear, 247–58.

  Some of his staff: FDR told speechwriter Sam Rosenman to ignore the State Department’s request to remove the line. Smith, FDR, 487.

  “a running argument”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 636–37, 747. See also ER to FDR, 7 November 1940, and ER to Welles, 11 December 1940.

  “As a human”: Hans Lustig’s lament to Kingdon, 13 September 1940, Kingdon to ER, 4 October 1940, 102/box 1808.

  “MGM may itself”: Long to ER, 11 October 1940.

  “Mrs. R is sorry”: Tommy to Kingdon, 22 October 1940, 102/box 1808.

  “I am just reading”: Charlotte Lustig to ER, 1 September, 54/box 4157.

  “Can’t something be”: ER to FDR, December 1940.

  “Is there anything”: ER to Sumner Welles.

  “everything in its”: New York Times, 10 December 1940. See also Ickes, Secret Diary, 13 December 1940, 3:389–90.

  “There are 12,000”: Breckinridge Long Diary, 13 November–12 December 1940, 151–61.

  “working at cross”: Ibid., 27 November, 1940.

  “rather slapped my ears”: Ickes, 21 December, Secret Diary.

  “Varian Fry’s arrest”: ER to Welles, 9 December 1940, FDRL.

  “no physical harm”: Welles to ER, 11 December 1940, FDRL. On 10 December Fry wrote to Frank Kingdon detailing the appalling circumstances of his arrest in a surprise raid on their rented commune, Villa Air-Bel. Detectives had arrived without a search warrant, confiscated their papers and typewriters, accused them of nothing, and transported them to the SS Sinaia. They were held from Monday night until Thursday noon, then released as they had been arrested, with no word of explanation. Kingdon shared the letter with ER. Fry, Surrender on Demand, 130–31, 146–49.

  “Franklin, you know”: Justine Wise Polier, oral history, 19, 20, FDRL. Around this time Judge Polier’s father, Rabbi Stephen Wise, had learned that “affidavits he had sent to get people out were being held up by the U.S. Consul in Marseilles.” When Rabbi Wise confronted the consul—“I understand you are not honoring my affidavits”—the consul replied: “Rabbi Wise, nobody could honor as many affidavits as you have given.” According to Polier, her father insisted the consul call FDR “to find out whether you are to honor my word or not.” The consul yielded, and that group “was cleared for admission to the United States and saved.”

  never referred to her: Years later, on 17 May 1960, Marta Feuchtwanger (wife of Lion, who died in 1958) wrote to ER that Hiram Bingham had told her husband that “you [ER] were instrumental in his visa at a moment of ultimate danger.” ER replied, “It was really my husband. . . . I could have done nothing except when he asked me to do it and I had his backing.” Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 637.

  “a kind of world”: FDR, “Four Freedoms” Speech, Annual Message to Congress, 6 January 1941, in Zevin, Nothing to Fear, 258–66.

  “saddened to notice”: My Day, 7 January 1941.

  from Thomas Mann: My Day, 14 January 1941. See also Klaus Mann, The Turning Point, 322ff, and chapters 14 and 15.

  “The Thomas Manns”: ER to Lash, January 1941.

  was “the busiest”: Fry, Surrender on Demand, 186–88.

  “important enough and”: Ernst, Not So Still Life, 199; Rosemary Sullivan, Villa Air-Bel, 339–42.

  “Eleanor right about”: Jimmy and Dallas Ernst to BWC, 1940–46, 1966 affidavits.

  “It was wonderful”: My Day, 14 January 1941.

  “be sensitive to”: Lash Diary, 16 January 1941, Lash Papers.

  “The Mrs. came into”: Ickes, Secret Diary, 3:396–97. See also Lash, Friend’s Memoir, 213–14.

  “is defense housing”: “Housing Lag Seen Slowing Defense,” New York Times, 26 January 1941.

  “the Number 1”: Time, 3 February 1941, 59.

  “never went home”: West, Upstairs, 19–24.

  first lady’s “closest confidante”: Ibid.

  “Crown Princess Martha”: Ibid.

  “In contrast to”: Ibid.

  “It is wonderful”: ER to Lash, 6 January 1941 Lash, Love, Eleanor, 336.

  “did not like”: Tommy to Lape, March 1941, Arizona Collection.

  “I am sorry”: ER to Eileen Fry, 13 May 1941, 100/box 1607.

  “suicides will increase”: Frank Kingdon to ER, 2 July 1941.

  Winant was an: Olson, Citizens of London, 23–24.

  “had been thrown”: Lady Florence Willert to ER; Lash Diary, 5 January 1941, Lash Papers.

  closest school chum: Bennett to ER, 1 Janaury 1941, 100/box 1625. See also ER to Bennett, 25 February 1941.

  “Suddenly he opened one eye”: Lash, Friend’s Memoir, 208; Lash Diary, 27 February 1941, Lash Papers.

  nineteenth-century plantation: Roegner, Minnie of Hobcaw.

  “her beautiful horses”: See also My Day, 26 March 1941.

  Belle “liked Eleanor”: Mary Miller, Baroness of Hobcaw, 115.

  associates urged decisive action: Olson, Citizens of London, 86–90, 116.

  “snatch at beauty”: Lash, Love, Eleanor, 338–39.

  her “empty heart”: Lash Diary, 30 March 1941, Lash Papers.

  “mood of lonely despair”: ER to Lash.

  “Time with you”: Lash Diary, April 1941.

  with “great applause”: Ibid., 20 April 1940, Lash Papers; Lash, Friend’s Memoir, 214–15.

  a “social fascist”: Joe Cadden to ER, 5 and 6 May 1941.

 
“immediately to range”: Loewenheim, Langley, and Jonas, Roosevelt and Churchill Correspondence, 83 and passim.

  “naval and military”: FDR, “Fireside Chat Outlining American Policy in the World Crisis,” 27 May 1941, in Zevin, Nothing to Fear, 271–83. See also Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 293–300. See also FDR: Personal Letters, 4: 1154–55.

  “None of us saw him”: Lash, Diary, 4 June 1941, Lash Papers.

  Missy LeHand believed: Cook, ER, 1:314–17.

  “be surprised at”: ER on Missy to Lash, Lash Diary, 20 March 1941, 20 April 1941, Lash Papers.

  “assigning students”: Lash, Friend’s Memoir, 236–54.

  “did most to fire”: Ibid., 251.

  “very quiet life”: FDR to SDR, 2 August 1941, in FDR: Personal Letters, 4:1196–97.

  “Early in August”: TIR, 224.

  when Franklin Jr.: TIR, 225–26.

  the Atlantic Charter: Loewenheim, Langley, and Jonas, Roosevelt and Churchill Correspondence, 152–55; Brands, Traitor, 597, 603–11.

  “reaffirmed faith in”: Plesch, America, Hitler and the UN, 24–27. The Atlantic Charter defined Allied goals for the postwar world. By this charter, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed: (1) to seek “no aggrandizement territorial or other”; (2) to seek “no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned”; (3) to “respect the right of all peoples to choose [their own] form of government . . . ; and wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored” wherever it has been forcibly denied; (4) to “endeavor” to create a system of equal access to all states “to the trade and raw materials of the world” needed for economic prosperity [a caveat that exempted “existing obligations” suggested historical and imperial limitations]; (5) to seek “to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations” and to secure “for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security”; (6) after “the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny,” to seek a peace for all nations and that provides all inhabitants therein with “freedom from fear and want”; (7) to seek a peace that would “enable all” to travel everywhere “without hindrance”; and (8) to strive for “all nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons,” to abandon “the use of force,” since pending a “permanent system of general security . . . disarmament . . . is essential.”

  “honestly faced my”: Lash, Love, Eleanor, 352–53.

  “An anxious 24”: My Day, 7 September 1941.

  “I see. So you”: When ER II told me that story, she said, “If you join the growing group that argues SDR was historically mistreated, I will never speak to you again.”

  “My idea of hell”: ER to Lash, 25 September 1941.

  “It’s such an”: ER to Anna, 17 September 1941.

  “Pale, but stately”: “G. Hall Roosevelt Dies,” New York Times, 26 September 1941. “Rites,” 27 September 1941; “Burial,” 28 September 1941.

  She intended to build: John Winant, Esther Lape, and others in ER’s circle often discussed the various roles women played in Britain. Eugene Meyer, publisher of the Washington Post, had recently visited London and seen that women were “really a part of the armed forces with rank and recognition.” He returned home filled with admiration for women volunteers. He met with ER and encouraged her to help build something similar. Ickes, Secret Diary, 25 October 1941, 3:634. Meyer thought La Guardia as OCD director was “a joke.”

  “The loss of someone”: TIR, 230.

  “I will carry on here”: Tommy to Anna, 2 October 1941.

  “One morning my”: TIR, 231.

  “Her friends and family”: Lash, Friend’s Memoir, 259–60.

  “I feel as you”: Lash, Love, Eleanor, 361.

  “for the honor”: Ickes, Secret Diary, 3:654–55; 7 December 1941, 3:661–66. See also Gilbert, Second World War, 262–64, 268–73.

  “when one of the ushers”: TIR, 232–35.

  “Yesterday, December 7”: FDR, “War Message to Congress,” 8 December 1941, in Zevin, Nothing to Fear, 301-3. See also TIR, 232–35. FDR’s speech was accepted without “a peep from an appeaser or an isolationist anywhere.” Ickes, Secret Diary, 3:665.

  Chapter Seventeen: “To Know Me Is a Terrible Thing”: Friendship, Loyalties, and Alliances

  “a curious sense”: My Day, 9 December 1941.

  “trend of thought”: My Day, 16 December 1941.

  “The crops were ready”: Tommy to Lape, 16 December 1941.

  “The greatest test”: My Day, 16 December 1941.

  “if we are going to keep”: My Day, 27 and 28 November 1941.

  “I hope every person”: My Day, 3 December 1941.

  “an amazing letter”: Tommy to Lape, 16 December 1941; see also Greg Robinson, By Order, 75.

  “more basic than”: Pearl Buck to ER, 18 December 1941, in Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 669. See also ER’s draft of review for Pearl Buck’s “American Unity and Asia,” New Republic, 3 August 1942. I am grateful to Greg Robinson for this reference.

  “ER said she”: Tommy to Lape, 16 December 1941.

  “comprehensive community”: My Day, 27 November 1941.

  “health is a stepping stone”: My Day, 6 December 1941.

  “in the operating policy”: ER to National Council of Negro Women, press clip 20 October 1941 in NAACP Papers, Library of Congress.

  “maternal, child health”: TIR, 235–40.

  “inspiring” . . . “her passionate integrity”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 646.

  “had a strictly”: My Day, 20 December 1941.

  “Her voice did not”: Lash Diary, 26 December 1941, Lash Papers.

  “the favorite of most”: West, Upstairs, 38–40.

  His “most colorful”: Ibid.

  disregard for public opinion: Parks, Family in Turmoil, 98–100; Smith, FDR, 543–44.

  “the best Christmas”: Coit, Baruch, 491–94.

  “I don’t trust”: ER to Anna, 23 December 1941 and 4 January 1942, Asbell, 140–41.

  “talked much with”: ER to Hick, 26 December 1941, quoted in Gilbert, Churchill and America, 249–50.

  “loveable and emotional”: ER to Anna, 23 December 1941; 4 January 1942, 140–41, Asbell. According to John Lukacs, ER “had gone so far as to ask a friend to impress that upon her husband.” Lukacs, Five Days in London, 72.

  “The United Nations”: My Day, 2 January 1942.

  “I did not open”: Lash Diary, l January 1942, Lash Papers.

  of “other authorities”: The Big Four were the United States, Britain, USSR, and China. They would have twenty-two allies: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia.

  “gotten as far”: Lash, Roosevelt and Churchill, 16–20.

  “was upstairs pacing”: Lash, Roosevelt and Churchill, 19. On the negotiations over Christmas week, see Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 444–69, Plesch, America, Hitler and the UN, 31–38, and James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom, 483–89.

  “Here, where the”: Lash, Roosevelt and Churchill, 18n.

  “Four fifths of the human”: Ibid., 20.

  “prelude to a”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins.

  “group activities, especially”: My Day, 25 and 29 December 1941.

  enjoy “physical exercise”: See also Mayris Chaney memoir (unpublished ms.), 57–58; 93–99.

  “largely in the mountain”: My Day, 12 January 1942.

  “most moving and”: My Day, 13 January 1942.

  “information and propaganda”: Douglas, Autobiography, 116–23.

  “To know me”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 651.
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  “ferried planes to”: My Day, 27 and 28 January 1942.

  “freedom for every”: My Day, 4 February 1942.

  “not quite moral”: My Day, 13 February 1942.

  “I do not think”: TIR, 249–50.

  “Eat it up”: My Day, 21 February 1942.

  “I am not”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 651.

  “it was a Declaration”: Ibid.

  “small and very vocal”: ER broadcast, 22 February 1942. Tiny was also grateful to Eddie Cantor, who organized a group of performer friends in her defense, and for two significant columns: Sam Grafton, “I’d Rather Be Right,” New York Post, 11 February 1942; and John D. Barry, “Ways of the World,” 26 February 1942.

  “more recognition” to: Daily Mirror, 21 February 1942.

  hero Doris “Dorie Miller”: See Marcantonio, I Vote, 155–56. Miller had started out as the ship’s cook, had not been trained as a machine gunner. “I just pulled the trigger, and she worked fine,” he explained. In May 1942 he received the Navy Cross “for courage under fire.” On 24 November 1943 he died when his ship was torpedoed in the South Pacific.

  “no law-abiding aliens”: ER, broadcast, 4 December 1941.

  to “do something”: In 1940 Churchill had detained 74,000 “enemy aliens.” Britain subsequently released them since most were Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria, as well as antifascist allies, grateful and entirely loyal to Britain.

  The author Louis Adamic: ER was subsequently shocked by Louis Adamic’s distortions in his 1946 book Dinner at the White House, which misrepresented her convictions and denounced Winston Churchill so vigorously, he “hotly resented it,” sued for libel—and won. TIR, 245. See esp. Robinson, By Order, 93–94 passim; and Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 749–60.

  “photographed and examined”: My Day, 15 January 1942.

  “to avoid mass internment”: Biddle, In Brief Authority, 207–11. ER agreed with Biddle’s determination.

  by EO 9066: Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 209 and map; Smith, FDR, 494.

  “I see absolutely no”: Milton Eisenhower, President Is Calling, 99–127, esp. 100.

  “virtually all permanent”: Robinson, By Order, 108.