Paper - Brandeis

The large black Pierce-Arrow wound its way down to the White House from California Street in the northwest section of Washington, D.C. The old man was dressed in a dark suit and sat stiffly in the back seat while the chauffeur maneuvered through traffic. The old man hated cars. They had a terrible impact on people. Transformed their personalities. The most placid person could become mean and aggressive behind the wheel of an automobile. Another sign of mans losing control of his environment. The old man could afford a fleet of Cadillacs, but he had vowed never to buy a car and had even resisted renting one for as long as he could. Washington was already becoming a motorized city when he came to live there in 1916, but he continued to use his horse and buggy until he was almost literally forced off the streets in the mid-1920s. No, the old man didnt like cars at all. In fact, he thought the world would be better off if Detroit were blown off the face of the earth.

The car pulled up in front of the white mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue. The old man got out and stepped into the warm, almost balmy air. It was an unusual autumn day. But on this Saturday morning in November 1938, the old man had something more important than the weather on his mind.

He went into the mansion and was taken upstairs to the presidents living quarters on the second floor. The president was getting ready to leave for Warm Springs, Georgia, for Thanksgiving and was receiving appointments in his personal residence instead of the Oval Office. At 11:20, the visitor was ushered into the room where the president was waiting.

Even though he was now eighty-two, the old man was still an imposing figure. He was beginning to stoop a little from age, but he carried his slim six-foot frame erect. His impressive shock of unkempt hair was white with a bluish tint; and his high cheekbones and other angular features made him look something like Abraham Lincoln (and for those who missed it, his wife was quick to point out the resemblance). Then there were the deep-set eyes with their bluish-gray coloring; they were so penetrating they seemed to look right through you. The old man had thousands of devoted admirers throughout the country. Some said he was the closest thing to a modern-day prophet. And Louis D. Brandeis, now a United States Supreme Court justice, looked the part.

Brandeiss relationship with Franklin D. Roosevelt went back more than twenty years. Roosevelt was an assistant secretary of the Navy and a devoted follower of President Wilsons when Brandeis was nominated to fill a seat on the Court in January 1916. Brandeiss confirmation fight in the United States Senate had been a bitter one, probably the most grueling in the countrys history. Roosevelt kept in almost daily touch with the proceedings. It was primarily a matter of loyalty to Wilson. Brandeis was a nationally renowned social activist, the peoples attorney. His fate at the hands of the Senate would be a reflection of Progressive sentiment in the country, a crucial factor in Wilsons bid for reelection later that year.

Much had happened to Roosevelt since those early days. He still conveyed the same aristocratic, high-spirited air of confidence. He would still throw his head back and laugh at a joke. But he could no longer walk on his own. Polio had taken care of him there. And he was now president of the United States. He had taken the oath of office at the height of the Depression. One-quarter of the nations workforce was unemployed. Production was only a pitiful fraction of what it had been only a few years before. Pessimism and despair abounded, and some people talked openly of a need for a new system of government.

Roosevelt did not have any well-defined program to meet the countrys economic and social ills when he entered the White House. He was, first and foremost, a politician. He would listen to almost anyone and, if the politics were right, try almost anything that offered some promise. Brandeis had a lot of ideas on that score, and he had not been shy about getting his views to the president, either directly or indirectly through one of the many disciples who roamed Washingtons halls of power. Brandeiss success with Roosevelt had been mixed; but through it all the president retained a high regardalmost reverencefor the old justice he affectionately called Isaiah. Their relationship took a temporary turn for the worse in 1937 when Roosevelt proposed a law that would have packed the Supreme Court with justices sympathetic to his programs and policies. Brandeis played a key role in killing the plan, and Roosevelt was momentarily shocked and hurt by the old justices behavior. You simply did not turn on your friends like that. And more than that, Roosevelt was convinced (at least for a time) that the Court-packing plan was a necessary step to fighting the Depression.

But on that balmy Saturday in November 1938, Brandeis did not come to talk about the Depression. He came to talk about the Jews.

The plight of Germanys 500,000 Jews had deteriorated rapidly after Adolph Hitler became chancellor in 1933. Matters reached a breaking point in early November 1938 when a seventeen-year-old Polish Jew living in Germany killed Ernest Von Rath, a secretary in the German Embassy in Paris. Immediately after receiving the news, Germans all over the country erupted in spontaneous demonstrations against Germanys Jews. Temples were dynamited, Jewish shops were looted, and people were dragged into the street and beaten up by mobs. In the town of Dsseldorfhome of the young killermobs pulled a rabbi from his temple, stomped him to death, and then brought the mangled body to the rabbis widow just to torment her.

Meanwhile, the German government waited twelve hours before Paul Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda, issued a statement requesting an end to the demonstrations. Goebbels acknowledged that the German people were filled with justifiable and understandable indignation over Von Raths murder. Goebbels promised, however, that the final answer to Jewry will be given in the form of laws or decrees. Goebbels was not one to make false promises. At least not when it came to Jews. Within a week it was reported that between 40,000 and 60,000 Jews had been arrested. New decrees were announced prohibiting Jews from engaging in a retail business, directing an industrial or commercial enterprise, attending colleges or universities, or even attending public forums for entertainment. To add insult to injury, the government then placed a $400 million fine on Germanys affluent Jews to pay for all the damage inflicted by the mobs.