<p>When Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi party, took power in Germany, the nation undertook an effort to purge itself of non-Aryans in order to "purify" the German state. In the process, 11 million people belonging to minority groups, 6 million of which were Jews, were exterminated in one of the worst genocides in human history. What became known as the Holocaust was addressed differently by the nations of the world. For various reasons, the United States' public attitudes and foreign policy decisions demonstrated a general attitude of indifference towards the Jewish genocide. Widespread anti-Semitism bred contempt for the Jewish cause, while the media called little attention to the genocide, and public opinion remained apathetic to the refugee cause. Worse still, official United States government and foreign policy was at best indifferent and at worse actively hostile to aiding rescue efforts. Although some Americans made heroic efforts to save  persecuted European Jews and aid their immigration process to the United States, their work, while by no means insignificant, is sadly not a reflection of the United States as a whole. The country had great power to make a difference, but unfortunately it did not act on it.</p>