16. The aftermath of Kristallnacht Kennedy clarified his position
Following the anti-Jewish rioting and destruction known as Kristallnacht, Roosevelt deferred a question on November 11 regarding America’s response to the State Department. At the time he was not yet fully informed of the extent of the violence and destruction which had occurred in Germany. On November 15, at another informal press conference (which he held nearly every day he was in the White House), he responded by announcing the American Ambassador to Germany was being recalled to Washington for “consultation”. He also stated that he “could scarcely believe that such things could occur in a twentieth-century civilization”.
Privately, Joseph Kennedy expressed his dismay as well, in a letter to Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh had toured Nazi Germany several times, and even flown the Luftwaffe’s newest fighter airplane. Like Kennedy, he supported friendly relations between the United States and Germany. To the aviator Kennedy wrote in reference to Hitler’s government, “Isn’t there some way to persuade it is on a situation like this that the whole program of saving western civilization might hinge? It is more and more difficult for those seeking peaceful solutions to advocate any plan when the papers are filled with such horror”.
