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“A Mighty Woman With A Torch”: Dorothy Thompson’S Call For American Action Against Nazism And Jewish Persecution, 1931-1945, Kiara Brynne Day

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

During the interwar period in the United States, the looming threat of Nazi Germany and the persecution of Jews was not at the forefront of American minds. However, one prominent journalist and activist, Dorothy Thompson, made it her life’s mission to turn complacency into action. This research explores the American response to Nazism, the refugee crisis, and the Holocaust from the biographical perspective of this American woman who, significantly, was the first foreign journalist expelled from Nazi Germany. Combining American, German, and women’s history, this thesis tells the story of Thompson’s underappreciated role in American journalism and politics as well …