THE
LONG, LONG ROAD -- WHAT A JEWISH FAMILY HAD TO DO TO LIVE IN AMERICA
1. The quota list
Quotas for obtaining permission to live in the United
States began with the revision of the nation's immigration laws in 1924. That
law placed major restrictions on how many immigrants could come to live in the
United States each year. A quota system was established and the quotas were
parceled out by national origin:
"The annual quota of any nationality shall be two
per centum of the number of foreign-born individuals of such nationality resident
in continental United States as determined by the United States Census of 1890."
Using this formula, only 51,227 persons born in Germany
could obtain an entry visa in 1924. The number changed but little in succeeding
years. By the 1930s, the limits on the number of German nationals who could
annually enter the United States meant that German Jews who applied for a visa
would have to wait for months before their quota number came to the top of the
list. As the 1930s wore on, the waiting rose from months to years.
Hitler took advantage of this bureaucratic roadblock in 1933 when he told
an interviewer that even the people of the United States did not want Jews in
their midst. "Through its immigration law," he said, "America
has inhibited the unwelcome influx of such races as it had been unable to tolerate
in its midst. Nor is America now ready to open its doors to Jews fleeing from
Germany."
Documents on this page courtesy of Herman Stern Papers,
OGL#217, Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz
Library, University of North Dakota.
