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Ruby Wax Last Might

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mikey4444 | 20:20 Thu 05th Oct 2017 | TV
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b097mdh4/who-do-you-think-you-are-series-14-10-ruby-wax

I meant to post this earlier today. I thought last nights "Who do you think you are" was extraordinarily powerful. I have read and studied t lot about the Holocaust, but this program brought it home so very well. I wanted to give poor Ruby a big hug.

Recommended to everybody !
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Her upbringing however can't have helped at all.
In truth, as bad as it was, her parents had an easier time escaping the Nazis than many. They were allowed to leave. Ruby is, like her mother, grandmother and aunt, mentally unstable, but being raised by a mentally unstable mother, as Ruby was, would have a negative affect on any child.
Yes Naomi.
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I seem to recall that in a previous programme, Ruby was very critical of her father, as well as her mother. As far as I can see, her father had no history of mental illness.

It would be interesting to learn how other Jewish escapees from Nazi Germany fared after leaving Germany, especially the ones who had relatives that were left behind and who were subsequently persecuted and murdered. The guilt of being perhaps the only one of your family to escape must have been a dreadful burden for some people to bear.

Another interesting aspect of the Ruby programme as how unwilling America was in taking in Jews. So much for the “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

They were also very unwilling to help out in the "Kinderstansport".
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Slightly off-topic here, but hell....its my thread !

The British Kindertransport program took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig.

In contrast, the American version brought in just 1400 in the same period.

Interesting !
Mikey, //It would be interesting to learn how other Jewish escapees from Nazi Germany fared after leaving Germany, especially the ones who had relatives that were left behind and who were subsequently persecuted and murdered.//

I’m acquainted with a few of those people most of whom are dead now, but I spoke to them in depth when they were alive. They fared well enough – Jews are generally nothing if not resilient and self-supporting - although of course the horror and the sadness was, and is, never forgotten. Guilt was never mentioned.

As for the USA’s reluctance to take Jews from war-torn Europe, it seems a restriction was imposed in 1924 – long before World War II - on the number of immigrants entering America. Nevertheless in 1939/40 more than half the people coming to the USA were Jews from Europe.

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005182
Mikey, between 1933 and 1945, the USA took in more than 200,000 Jews.
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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.
Mikey, can you post the link you lifted that from?
I think you mean 'this is how I read'.
It’s from Wiki, Naomi.
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But if I do Naomi, you will rubbish the source, because it doesn't agree with your agenda, mainly because it also calls Erich von Daniken a charlatan.

Look up "One Thousand Children" yourself.

While you are at it, look up "Wagner-Rogers Act", at the same time.
Oh is it Zacs. Thanks.
Mikey, what are you talking about? Wiki’s useful, but it can’t be relied upon to provide accurate information 100% of the time. I don’t really know what your argument is here (or why Von Daniken has been mentioned), but if you read my post at 08:36 you will see my reference to immigration numbers having been restricted in 1924 so this wasn’t really a case of the USA shutting the door to Jewish children specifically, which is what you appear to be implying.
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Naomi....I am not implying anything, but giving some firm facts.

The American version of the Kindertransport was an abject failure, because Congress changed the law, preventing people from applying, which was made abundantly clear in the Ruby Wax program.

I repeat.....Kindertransport saw nearly 10,000 children brought to safety in the UK, while at the same time, only 1400 children were accepted into the US during the same time period.

Whatever else happened in 1924, those are the facts surrounding the Kindertransport.
Mikey, the change you’re talking about didn’t relate solely to children. Entry requirements across the board were tightened. 1924 saw a definite change in the law in that it reduced the number of immigrants the USA would accept, and although in 1939 an attempt was made to reverse that law (Wagner/Rogers), it failed. I think what you need to bear in mind when getting your knickers in a knot over this is that no one knew what was going to happen in Europe. Yes, Jews were being evicted from Europe, but who could even have imagined at that time what would result? No one foresaw the horrors of the holocaust. How could they? Hindsight is a wonderful thing so I don’t think it entirely fair to come down so harshly on America.
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Jews were being rounded up and put into Ghettos long before 1939. But America could have done better, as Britain did, but steadfastly refused to do so, and that is my point....Kindertransport, US-style, was an abject failure. They could and should have done more, but choose not to.
Mikey, does your condemnation stretch to other countries that didn't take an active part in Kindertransport equally or is it just the USA you have a beef with?

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