Dear Miss Perkins A story of Frances Perkins's efforts to aid refugees from Nazi Germany

Rebecca Brenner Graham

Book - 2025

She was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, the longest-serving Labor Secretary, and an architect of the New Deal. Yet beyond these celebrated accomplishments there is another dimension to Frances Perkins's story. Without fanfare, and despite powerful opposition, Perkins helped save the lives of countless Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. "Immigration problems usually have to be decided in a few days. They involve human lives. There can be no delaying," Perkins wrote in her memoir, The Roosevelt I Knew. In March 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Perkins was appointed Secretary of Labor by FDR. As Hitler rose to power, thousands of German-Jewish refugees and their loved ones reached out to the IN...S--then part of the Department of Labor--applying for immigration to the United States, writing letters that began "Dear Miss Perkins . . ." Perkins's early experiences working in Chicago's famed Hull House and as a firsthand witness to the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist fire shaped her determination to advocate for immigrants and refugees. As Secretary of Labor, she wrestled widespread antisemitism and isolationism, finding creative ways to work around quotas and restrictive immigration laws. Diligent, resilient, empathetic, yet steadfast, she persisted on behalf of the desperate when others refused to act. --

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2nd Floor New Shelf BIOGRAPHY/Perkins, Frances (NEW SHELF) Checked In
Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
New York, NY : Citadel Press, Kensington Publishing Corp 2025.
Language
English
Main Author
Rebecca Brenner Graham (author)
Physical Description
vii, 328 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 288-319) and index.
ISBN
9780806543178
  • Introduction
  • 1. Becoming Frances Perkins
  • 2. Becoming American Immigration Law
  • 3. Becoming Nazi Germany
  • 4. Charge Bonds Controversy
  • 5. Child Refugees
  • 6. Resolution to Impeach Frances Perkins
  • 7. Dear Miss Perkins
  • 8. Alaska
  • 9. The Transfer of the INS from the Labor Department to the Justice Department
  • 10. The Trapp Family Singers
  • 11. Remembering the Holocaust in the U.S.
  • 12. Remembering American Immigration Law
  • 13. Remembering Frances Perkins
  • Afterword
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index