The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown: Newspapers, Op-eds, and American Responses to Antisemitism

In 1940, there were nearly 1,900 daily newspapers in the United States read and shared by millions of Americans. These periodicals give us a glimpse into the intense struggles in the American heartland surrounding arguments promoting racism, discrimination, antisemitism, and isolationism during the 1930s and 1940s. Eric Schmalz, community manager for the History Unfolded project at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, will talk about the role antisemitism played in the general American cultural landscape and how ordinary Americans reacted.