Final answer:
People's awareness of the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust grew due to Nazi propaganda, restrictive immigration policies, and, eventually, the direct reporting and witnessing of the consequences of the Holocaust. The turning points included the Kristallnacht pogrom, the War Refugee Board formation, and the exposure of the concentration camps' atrocities after their liberation by Allied forces.
Step-by-step explanation:
People's Awareness of the Plight of the Jews during the Holocaust
The plight of the Jewish people during the Holocaust became more widely recognized due to a combination of factors, including anti-Semitic propaganda, governmental policies, and eyewitness reports. Nazi propaganda, spearheaded by Joseph Goebbels, dehumanized Jewish people, while the United States and other countries initially placed stringent immigration quotas that prevented many Jews from escaping. The systemic Nazi persecution became increasingly evident with events like Kristallnacht, which drew international condemnation but little effective action. During the war, information was scarce, and the full extent of the Holocaust was not widely understood.
Furthermore, American responses to the Holocaust were initially tepid. President Roosevelt spoke out after Kristallnacht and attempted to address the refugee crisis at the 1938 Evian Conference, but with limited success. The U.S. State Department maintained tough visa policies, shaped partly by the economic pressures of the Great Depression and prevailing anti-Semitic and isolationist sentiments. It wasn't until the formation of the War Refugee Board in 1944 that official policy began to shift. The mainstream American press only sporadically reported on the mass murders, but intelligence reports and the efforts of Jewish organizations kept the issue public when possible.
At the war's end, the liberation of the concentration camps by Russian troops and the dissemination of survivor accounts brought the horrors of the Holocaust to the forefront. This led to widespread outrage and a reevaluation of immigration policies and ultimately contributed to the establishment of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state, reshaping geopolitics and refugee patterns irreversibly.