There are, of course, enormous differences between the modern day Middle Eastern refugee crisis and the plight of German Jews in the years leading up to World War II. However, there is also at least one piece of common ground the two refugee crises share — suspicion and shuttered doors from Americans.
According to a public opinion poll that was published in Fortune magazine in July 1938, fewer than 5 percent of Americans surveyed at the time thought "we should encourage [Jewish political refugees] to come, even if we have to raise our immigration quotas," The Washington Post reports. In fact, 67.4 percent of Americans believed that "with conditions as they are, we should try to keep [the refugees] out."
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