Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 3

by Blanche Wiesen Cook

  “Today is the 10th”: My Day, 11 May 1943.

  was “highly educated”: Ibid.

  “North African territory”: Breckenridge Long Diary 20 April, 22 April, 7 May, and 12 May 1943, 306–8; 29 January 1942, 246–47; and 23 June 1943, 316.

  It accomplished nothing: For Bermuda, see Wyman, Abandonment, 104–23, 341–3. Wyman points out that Long appointed State Department advisers to Bermuda who opposed rescue efforts, led by R. Borden Reams—who had sought to silence publicity about exterminations, and opposed the 17 December 1942 UN war crimes declaration.

  “flashed news of”: Gilbert, Second World War, 421, 428; Wyman, Abandonment, 123.

  “Morale is disturbed”: Buckley, American Patriots, 288.

  “the 99th was off”: Ibid., 282–94. See also Redtails. I am grateful to Dr. Roscoe Brown for his memories and for the Tuskegee Airmen Chronology.

  “Lady Big Heart”: Ibid., 266–67, 272.

  “hotbed of racial hatred”: Rowan, Dream Makers, 99–102 See also Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 675.

  “Dearest Franklin, I’ve”: ER to FDR, 9 July 1943, family archive, box 16.

  Frankie “is o.k.”: Lash, World of Love, 50–51.

  “The State Department”: Max Lerner, “What About the Jews, FDR?” PM, 22 July 1943.

  “I will be glad to say”: Wyman, Abandonment, 145.

  “extermination list,” and: New York Times, August 1943.

  “I do not know”: My Day, 13 August 1943.

  “You know better”: Stella Reading to Churchill, 16 January 1943; ER to Lash and Trude Pratt, 25 July 1943; ER to Hick, 26 July 1943; Lash, World of Love 45–52.

  Rescue the Perishing: Breitman, Official Secrets, 171ff; Feingold, Politics of Rescue, 209. See also Nicolson. Diaries and Letters, 35, 2:343; and Susan Pedersen, Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience.

  “Like everybody else”: My Day, 27 July 1943.

  “Death stares them”: My Day, 2 August 1943.

  “was turning red”: Churchill to FDR, 5 August 1943; see also My Day, 27 July and 2 August 1943; BWC, Declassified Eisenhower, 21–24; Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 382–92.

  “was kindness itself”: Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 247–48.

  to eliminate “destitution”: My Day, 14 August 1943. See FDR, “Statement on the Second Anniversary of the Atlantic Charter,” 14 August 1943.

  “the P was very sweet”: Tommy to Lape, 18 August 1943.

  Chapter Nineteen: “The White Heron of the One Flight”: Travels in the Pacific and Beyond

  “I hate to see”: Tommy to Lape, n.d., postmarked 18 August, 23 August, and 25 August 1943, BWC Arizona Collection.

  “representative of the”: My Day, 28 August 1943.

  “was a wonderful”: TIR, 303.

  “is seen but once”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 685.

  “as bad as bullets”: ER to Hick, 1 September 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 62.

  “The people here”: Ibid., 61–62.

  “did a magnificent job”: Durno to Tommy, n.d., in Lash, World of Love, 62–63.

  her “first encounter”: TIR, 299.

  “seemed to be no”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 683.

  “Last night four men”: ER to Tommy, n.d., in Lash, World of Love, 59.

  “dreaded” ER’s arrival: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 684.

  “When I say”: Ibid., 685.

  “she wanted to see”: Robert M. White, “A Mother at the Front,” Christian Advocate, 30 December 1943, in Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 687.

  “When she came”: Calvin Thompson in Fleming, Our Eleanor, 101.

  “The natives of Guadalcanal”: My Day, 23 September 1943. ER’s daughter Anna and Hick considered this column “one of the best you have ever written.” Hick to ER, 24 September 1943; ER to Anna, 27 September 1943. See also My Day, 1, 3, 13, 18, and 24 September 1943.

  “I shall have”: TIR, 309.

  “How I hated”: ER to Joe, 18 September 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 71.

  “it was impossible”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 691.

  “I was ashamed”: Ibid.

  “hospitals and cemeteries”: Hick to ER, 24 September 1943.

  “Men not chief”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 691.

  “I talked to her”: Lash, World of Love, 74.

  “seemed pretty feeble”: Ibid.; Lape to ER, Tommy to Hick, 22 September 1943.

  who was “happy”: ER to Lash, 22 September 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 74.

  “Pa asked me more”: ER to Anna, 27 September 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 77.

  “the onset of a”: Lash, World of Love, 75.

  “the men had been mentally”: TIR, 311.

  “I know that the Army”: FDR to Henry Stimson and Frank Knox, 20 September 1943, in FDR: Personal Letters, 4:1443.

  “some Rabbis sobbed”: Wyman, Abandonment, 148–53.

  “In a democracy”: Heschel, to his classes, which I attended, 1961–62.

  his attitude “perfect”: My Day, 9 October 1943.

  message of encouragement: ER’s broadcasts with Peter Bergson for OWI, 18 and 29 October 1943, in Wyman, Race Against Death, 139.

  by Eleanor Rathbone: See Pedersen, Rathbone and Conscience; Kushner, Holocaust and Liberal Imagination. Britain’s Tony Kushner dedicated his book to Eleanor Rathbone, who knew, cared, and acted.

  “The Boss was very”: Trude to Lash, 9 October 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 80–81.

  “As long as she”: Trude to Joe, 9, 10, 11 October 1943, ibid., 81.

  and “brushed aside”: Daisy Suckley Diary, 8 and 11 October 1943, in Ward, Closest Companion, 248–49.

  ER’s “terrible sorrow”: Lash to Trude, 28 October 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 81.

  “find out whether”: Henry Wallace Diary, 30 September 1943, 21 October 1943. FDRM, IV, 1391, 1530f.

  “waste spaces for”: For Bowman’s 1938–1940 reports, see Cook, ER, 2:560–62. For the M Project, see Smith, American Empire, 301ff.

  “from the Mediterranean”: Wallace, Price of Vision, 276–77.

  The first lady was impressed: Ibid., 210–11; at this meeting Churchill spoke about the “development of trans-Jordania for the Jews, which Wallace agreed with. ER to Lash on Baruch, in Lash, World of Love, 88–90; Baruch and King Leopold, Baruch, Public Years, 2:274; Baruch to Wallace, Price of Vision, 279.

  “questions beyond her”: Smith, American Empire, 305–6.

  akin to the Nazis’: Ibid., 306. See also Wallace, Price of Vision, 263–65, 269–70.

  the President told: FDR, 22 May 1943, Wallace Diary.

  “some Zionist ladies”: ER to Lash, 16 November 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 91.

  “to gas chambers, probably”: Henry Morgenthau.

  “The British say”: Morgenthau Diaries, 519–29; Wyman, Abandonment, 178–85.

  was “very happy”: Trude to Lash, in Lash, World of Love, 88.

  “Today in the East Room”: My Day, 10 November 1943.

  “something great may”: ER to Lash, 9 November 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 88.

  that two women: My Day, 4 December 1943. See also Morgenthau, Mostly Morgenthaus, 225.

  all “abominable deeds”: Gilbert, Auschwitz and Allies, 160.

  “commission of diplomatic”: Medoff, Blowing the Whistle, 56.

  “Bestial and abominable”: New York Times, 5 November 1943; Wyman, Abandonment, 154–55; ER to Bergson, 139; Morgenthau, Mostly Morgenthaus, 323; Ben Hecht, Child of the Century, 576–82. Although his chronology is inaccurate for “My Uncle Abraham,” his details about the Bergson group, Romania’s offer, and related issues are stunning, 521ff. I am grateful to Mim Kelber for this book.

  “I’ve been amused”:
ER to FDR; Weinberg, World at Arms, 493; Gilbert, History of Twentieth Century, 521–22.

  to be “sidelined”: Tommy to Lape, ca. October 1943, BWC Arizona Collection.

  FDR became “furious”: ER to Lash, in Lash, World of Love, 101.

  “had a liking”: My Day, 24 November 1943.

  “I find it hard”: ER to Lape, 19 November 1943; BWC Arizona Collection.

  because of political “realities”: For the work of the American Foundation, see Cook, ER, vols. 1–2; and for Lape and Elizabeth Read’s influence on ER, see 11, 97, 294–95, and passim. On Esther Lape, see Susan Ware, ed., Notable American Women (2004 ed.).

  “Life without Lizzie”: ER to Lape, 14 December 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 100.

  “I am sorry”: ER to FDR, 5 December 1943.

  “Day by day news”: My Day, 8 December 1943.

  “Those four powers”: FDR, Christmas Eve Fireside Chat on Teheran and Cairo Conferences, 24 December 1943, in Rosenman, FDR Public Papers, 12:558ff.

  “Though two of our”: My Day, 27 December 1943.

  “I guess one”: ER to Lash, 25 December 1943, in Lash, World of Love, 104.

  “I want to tell you”: ER to Lash and Trude Pratt, ca. 1 January 1944, ibid., 105.

  “There is one thing”: ER to Lash, 21 January 1944, ibid., 116.

  “the most radical speech”: Burns and Dunn, Three Roosevelts, 483; cf. Brands, Traitor to His Class, 733–34.

  “We have come to a clear”: FDR, State of the Union address, 11 January 1944, in Rosenman, FDR Public Papers, 13:41–42.

  “WAVES at their”: My Day, 13 January 1944.

  “complete, unified social”: My Day, 19 January 1944.

  “social insurance measures”: My Day, 20 January 1944.

  “the colored residents”: My Day, 5 January 1944. See also My Day, 22 and 25 January 1944.

  “wipe out illiteracy”: My Day, 24 January 1944.

  “to the limit of their”: My Day, 14 January 1944. See ER to Lash, 18 January 1944, World of Love, 111.

  copy two cables: Gruber, Haven, 16–19. See also Medoff, Blowing the Whistle.

  “One of the greatest”: Gruber, Haven, 24.

  “the tragic bottleneck”: Ibid., 25–26.

  “failed to use”: Ibid., 24.

  president “listened attentively”: See Medoff, Blowing the Whistle, for the fullest account.

  “placed in the same”: Ibid.

  draft for a WRB “wonderful”: Ibid.

  “Those terrible eighteen”: Morgenthau Diaries, 531–33; Morgenthau, Mostly Morgenthaus, 321–35.

  “immediate rescue and”: FDR executive order, 22 January 1944.

  “was withdrawn from”: Gruber, Haven, 26–27.

  Raoul Wallenberg, a young: See Marton, Wallenberg; Wallenberg, Letters and Dispatches.

  “none is too many”: Troper and Abella, None Is Too Many.

  FDR was “cordial”: Morgenthau, Mostly Morgenthaus, 333.

  “Anna’s presence was”: TIR, 319.

  “be conquered by”: ER’s initial response to Anna as told to Ward, Closest Companion, 285.

  ER graciously “greeted”: Daisy Suckley Diary, 30 January, 273.

  he had surgery: Ibid., 2 February, 275–76; My Day, 3 February 1944.

  “not for the needy”: ER to Lash, ca. 23 February 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 112.

  a “fighting liberal”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 695.

  she said, “Now, Franklin”: Anna, in Asbell, 177.

  “In continuing to”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 693.

  “What fun our”: ER to Elinor Morgenthau, ca. 6 March 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 113.

  “Trude and I talk”: ER to Lash, 27 April 1944, ibid., 120.

  “felt they were in”: TIR, 319.

  “a real weariness”: Tommy to Lape, ca. 14 March 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 112–13.

  “Many happy returns”: ER to FDR, 10, 13 and 17 March 1944. ER reflected on her trip in My Day, daily from 7 March to 7 April 1944.

  “flying from Recife”: ER to FDR, 17 March 1944.

  “cheered the men”: “First Lady Visits Brazil,” New York Times, 16, 17 March 1944.

  “The trip did”: Tommy to Lape, ca. April 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 115.

  diagnosed with “hypertension”: Lash, World of Love, 114–116.

  “Hobcaw was just”: TIR, 328.

  “knew that Franklin”: Ibid., 329. ER’s visit 24 April 1944, to Lash, World of Love, 118–19; My Day, 27 April 1944. See also Brockington, Plantation, 95; Miller, Baroness of Hobcaw, 134–41. Photographs of FDR without his blemish, thought by many a melanoma, occur after his Hobcaw visit. See Harry S. Goldsmith, MD, “Unanswered Mysteries in the Death of FDR,” Surgeon’s Library (December 1979), 899–908; Lomazow and Fettmann, FDR’s Deadly Secret. Thanks to ELR, MD, and MDWL. To date there is no evidence of FDR’s surgery at Hobcaw, although James MacGregor Burns refers to a rumor that circulated “even in the White House” that FDR had had a “secret operation at Hobcaw.” Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 507.

  “I am more worried”: Daisy Suckley Diary, April 1944, 292; 4–9 May 1944, 294–98; 26 March 1944 at Hyde Park, 287–88.

  “shorten the war”: See Y. Aleksandra Bennett, introduction to Brittain, One Voice; Brittain, Testament of Experience; Brittain, Seed of Chaos, 324–36.

  “the callous cruelty”: Brittain, Seed of Chaos, 324–36.

  “their facts are wrong!”: “Mass Bombing Foes Rebuked by Roosevelt,” Tribune, 26 April 1944; “FDR Defends Mass Raids,” New Chronicle, 27 April 1944.

  “I must really live”: ER to Lash, 19 May 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 118.

  “is so fine”: Daisy Suckley Diary, 19–24 May 1944, 300–3.

  “very good orientals”: Daisy Suckley Diary, 19–24 May 1944, 300–3.

  “was composed of”: My Day, 23 May 1944.

  “more serious subjects”: Daisy Suckley Diary, 19–24 May 1944, 300–3.

  “Was this a war”: My Day, 30 May 1944. ER’s last words here suggest that she had not dismissed Seed of Chaos as merely “sentimental nonsense” as was reported.

  “the foundations of”: FDR, “Fireside Chat on the Fall of Rome,” 5 June 1944, in Rosenman, FDR Public Papers, 13:148, 151.

  “Soldiers, sailors, and”: Eisenhower, 6 June 1944.

  “went off with some”: Daisy Suckley Diary, 7–8 June 1944, 309–10.

  “So at last”: My Day, 7 June 1944.

  “Last night, when I”: FDR, D-Day prayer.

  “a good prayer”: My Day, 8 June 1944.

  “I hope that many people”: Ibid.

  Oswego, New York: Gruber, Haven, 117ff.

  “ER is trying to force”: Morgenthau Diaries, 6 July 1944; other conversation materials, thanks to Bill Hannegan. On Wallace, Pendergast, and Truman, see Wallace, Price of Vision, 395.

  “Labor is firmly”: Trude to Lash, 14 July 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 129.

  “The future belongs”: Wallace, Price of Vision, “Recollections of the Chicago 1944 Convention,” 367–74.

  “but F says”: ER to Lash, ca. 16 July 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 129. As requested, ER did not publish the column until 24 July.

  “Hannegan came to”: ER to Hick, 16 July 1944, ibid., 130.

  “I don’t know that”: ER to Trude, 16 July 1944, ibid., 129.

  “I am no politician”: ER to Lash, 16 July 1944, ibid., 130.

  “shot and killed”: Crisis editorial, August 1944, 249.

  “There has been”: ER to Lash, 18 July 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 131.

  “dancing in a little”: My Day, 28 July 1944.

  “has spoiled me”: ER to Anna, 16 July 1944, H
alsted Papers.

  “Wallace did not lose”: Crisis editorial, August 1944, 249.

  promised “progressive leadership”: FDR, address broadcast from a naval base on the Pacific Coast to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 20 July 1944, in Rosenman, FDR Public Papers, 13:204–5. See also Wallace’s detailed convention notes, Price of Vision, 360–81, 413–14.

  note “Dearest Babs”: FDR to ER, 21 July 1944, FDR: Personal Letters, 4:1525. ER to FDR, 30 July 44, family archive, box 16, mentions FDR’s colly-wobbles, with no indication it might have been a heart attack. ER to Lash, 29 July, 132–33.

  “There is integrity”: My Day, 24 July 1944.

  “who think first of”: My Day, 10 August 1944.

  “year of extra training”: My Day, 24 August 1944.

  “was sad, but”: ER to FDR, 6 August 1944. Missy died on 2 August.

  “valiant and important”: My Day, 4 August 1944.

  “subject the nations”: Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 516.

  “The ladies have”: ER to Trude, 12 September 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 137.

  “It seems such a waste”: ER to Elinor Morgenthau, ibid., 137.

  “particularly along the”: TIR, 335–36.

  “I don’t know what”: ER to Hick, in Lash, n.d., World of Love, 138.

  “a Russian propaganda”: BBC, rejected Werth’s “Reports from Lublin.”

  await “further corroboration”: New York Herald Tribune. Werth, Russia at War, 884–899, esp. 890, 898; Gilbert, Second World War, 559. One reason for disbelief was that the Nazis destroyed and buried Sobibor and Treblinka before the Soviets arrived. See Manchester, Last Lion, 2:873.

  “the French people”: My Day, 26 August 1944.

  “through the woods”: ER to Lash, ca. 16 September 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 139.

  “My time slips”: ER to Lash, 18 September 1944, ibid., 139–40.

  “rather fun really”: Clementine Churchill’s “high praise,” Manchester, Last Lion, 2:876.

  prime minister “twitted”: My Day, 14 September 1944. See also ER to Lash, 18 September 1944, in Lash, World of Love, 140.

  Leahy was riveted: Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 521.

  “We can establish”: ER’s now much-quoted sentiment on love, with gratitude to Frazer Doughtery for his New Year message, 2014.