In 1938 President Roosevelt called for an international conference on the plight of Jewish European refugees ; this was held in Évian-les-Bains , France ( and hence known as the Évian Conference ) , but no substantive change resulted . The German Foreign Office , in a sardonic reply , found it " astonishing " that other countries would decry Germany 's treatment of Jews and then decline to admit them . In the early 1940s , information about the Nazi atrocities toward Europe 's Jews started to become public knowledge but was dismissed by many as exaggerated . As time passed , it became an increasingly contentious matter in contemporary American politics . At the same time , a public fear was generated concerning the security risk posed by admitting refugees to the United States . The U.S. State Department 's Visa Division was responsible for issuing travel visas to foreign nationals seeking to get to the United States
Nazi atrocities toward Europe 's Jews
The Holocaust
Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews