Telegram from 36 American Writers to President Roosevelt
11/16/1938
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Thirty-six American writers sent this telegram to President Franklin Roosevelt in November 1938, less than a week after Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” during which synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses across Germany were plundered and destroyed by the Nazis. They expressed outrage and asked the president to sever trade relations and declare an embargo on all “Nazi German goods.” Their telegram was just one of hundreds of telegrams and letters sent to U.S. government officials at the time expressing similar feelings of anger and dismay.
Text adapted from “Teaching Difficult Topics with Primary Sources” in the November/December 2011 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.
This primary source comes from the General Records of the Department of State.
National Archives Identifier:
6050578Full Citation: Telegram from 36 American Writers to President Roosevelt; 11/16/1938; 862.4016; 862.4016; Central Decimal Files, 1910 - 1963; General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/telegram-from-36-american-writers-to-president-roosevelt, May 9, 2024]