Public opinion in the U.S. was strongly negative toward Nazi Germany and Hitler , but there was also a strong aversion to war and to entanglement in European politics . The Roosevelt administration publicly hailed the Munich Agreement of 1938 for avoiding war but privately realized it was only a postponement that called for rapid rearming . Formal relations were cool until November 1938 , then turned very cold . The key event was American revulsion against Kristallnacht , the nationwide German assault on Jews and Jewish institutions . Religious groups which had been pacifistic also turned hostile . While the total flow of refugees from Germany to the U.S. was relatively small during the 1930s , many intellectuals did escape and resettled in the United States . Many were Jewish . Catholic universities were strengthened by the arrival of German Catholic intellectuals in exile , such as Waldemar Gurian at Notre Dame
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Germany–United States relations