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Naomi....this is how I understand the Kindertransport worked regarding America ::::
The One Thousand Children (OTC) was a similar but much less organised effort to transport unaccompanied children, mostly Jewish, to the United States. The program brought about 1400 children aged between 14 months and 16 years to the United States between November 1934 and May 1945. Like the kinder, these OTC children were forced to leave their parents behind in Europe; many of them were later murdered by the Nazis.
In contrast to the Kindertransport, where the British Government waived immigration visa requirements, these OTC children received no United States Government visa immigration assistance. Furthermore, it is documented that the State Department deliberately made it very difficult for any Jewish refugee to get an entrance visa
And it was even harder to secure the appropriate papers for their parents, hence most had to remain in Europe. In 1939 Sen. Robert F. Wagner and Rep. Edith Rogers proposed the Wagner-Rogers Bill in the United States Congress. This bill was to admit 20,000 unaccompanied Jewish child refugees under the age of 14 into the United States from Nazi Germany. However, in February 1939, this bill failed to get Congressional approval.
Given that America had welcomed many Jewish refugees for many years up until 1939, this change of heart is even less easy to understand. After all, Jews had been persecuted and oppressed long before Auschwitz had been thought of.