Henry Morgenthau Jr.

Henry Morgenthau Jr. (/ˈmɔːrɡənθɔː/; May 11, 1891 – February 6, 1967) was the United States Secretary of the Treasury during most of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal. After 1937, while still in charge of the Treasury, he played the central role in financing United States participation in World War II.^[1] He also played an increasingly major role in shaping foreign policy, especially with respect to Lend-Lease, support for China, helping Jewish refugees, and proposing (in the "Morgenthau Plan") measures to deindustrialise Germany.^[2]

Henry Morgenthau Jr.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman

William H. Woodin

Fred M. Vinson

(1891-05-11)May 11, 1891
New York City, U.S.

February 6, 1967(1967-02-06) (aged 75)
Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.

Democratic

Elinor Fatman

(m. 1916; died 1949)

Marcelle Puthon Hirsch

(m. 1951)

Henry Morgenthau Sr.
Josephine Sykes

Cornell University

Morgenthau was the father of Robert M. Morgenthau, who was district attorney of Manhattan for 35 years; Henry Morgenthau III, an American author and television producer; and noted pediatrician Dr. Joan Morganthau Hirschhorn. He continued as Treasury secretary through the first few months of Harry Truman's presidency, and from June 27, 1945, to July 3, 1945, following the resignation of Secretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr., was next in line to the presidency. Morgenthau was also the first Jew to be in the presidential line of succession.^[3]^[4]

Later life[edit]

In 1945, when Harry S. Truman became President, Morgenthau insisted on accompanying him to Potsdam by threatening to quit if he was not allowed to; Truman accepted his resignation immediately, ^[39] after he privately said he would refuse to send "any of [FDR's advisor] "Jew boys" to Potsdam. Years later Truman also referred to him as a "block head, nut" who "didn't know shit from apple butter."^[5]

He devoted the remainder of his life to working with Jewish philanthropies, and also became a financial advisor to Israel. Tal Shahar, an Israeli moshav (agricultural community) near Jerusalem, created in 1948, was named in his honor (Morgenthau (modern spelling: Morgentau) means "morning dew" in German, as does "Tal Shahar" in Hebrew).

(2002). The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941–1945. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-81027-0. LCCN 2002030331. Devotes much attention to Morgenthau Plan

Beschloss, Michael

Hurwitz, Ariel (1991). "The Struggle over the Creation of the War Refugee Board (WRB)". . 6 (1): 17–31. doi:10.1093/hgs/6.1.17.

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

(1948). The Tax Dodgers: The Insider Story of the T-Men's War with America's Political and Underworld Hoodlums. Greenburg. ASIN B002DIUAAW.

Irey, Elmer Lincoln

Levine, Rabbi Menachem (2024). , Aish.com

Henry Morgenthau’s Queen Esther Moment

Levy, Herbert. Henry Morgenthau, Jr.: The Remarkable Life of FDR's Secretary of the Treasury (Simon and Schuster, 2010).

(1981). From New Deal to New Economics: The American Liberal Response to the Recession of 1937. Garland Pub. ISBN 978-0-8240-4862-4. LCCN 80008466.

May, Dean L.

May, Dean L. (2000). "Morgenthau, Henry Jr". American National Biography. Oxford University Press.

online

Meier, Andrew (2022). Morganthau: Power, Privilege and the Rise of an American Family. New York: Random House. 9781400068852.

ISBN

Morgenthau III, Henry. Mostly Morgenthaus: a family history (1991).

Moreira, Peter (2014). The Jew Who Defeated Hitler: Henry Morgenthau Jr., FDR, and How We Won the War. Prometheus Books. 978-1-61614-958-1.

ISBN

Penkower, Monty Noam (1980). "Jewish Organizations and the Creation of the U.S. War Refugee Board". . 450 (1): 122–139. doi:10.1177/000271628045000111. S2CID 145103156.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

(1967). Money and Conquest: Allied Occupation Currencies in World War II. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-0530-1. LCCN 66026685. OCLC 186795.

Petrov, Vladimir Nikolayevich

Repetto, Thomas (2004). . Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-7210-5. LCCN 2003056736.

The American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power

(October 2011). Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It. Discovering America. pp. 54, 55. ISBN 978-0-292-72341-2.

Brands, H. W.

(1957–1960). The Age of Roosevelt, vol. I–III. LCCN 56010293.

Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr.

Shlaes, Amity (2007). . Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-06312-8.

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

Zelizer, Julian E. (June 2000). "The Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal: Fiscal Conservatism and the Roosevelt Administration, 1933–1938". . 30 (2): 331–358. doi:10.1111/j.0360-4918.2000.00115.x. JSTOR 27552097.

Presidential Studies Quarterly

. Time. October 15, 1945. Reaction to the publication of Morgenthau's book Germany is Our Problem where he promotes the Morgenthau Plan.

"Morgenthau's Hope"

. Time. September 22, 1967. Review of Years of War, 1941–1945; From the Morgenthau Diaries by John Morton Blum.

Henry Morgenthau Jr.