He helped thousands. He even saved the Gerrer Rebbe's life. But he never berated President Roosevelt for failing to rescue more European Jews from the Nazi inferno.

Sol Bloom – a colorful character who introduced the Ferris Wheel to the world in 1893 – chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives during World War II and valiantly steered both Cash-and-Carry and Lend-Lease through Congress. Yet, he disappointed Jewish rescue activists. For while Bloom was a proud Jew, as a high-ranking congressman he felt obligated to put the interests of his country – as he understood them – above all else. And that meant supporting Roosevelt as he led America against the greatest threat mankind has perhaps ever known.

Bloom's life is a unique prism through which to examine the question that continues to haunt so many: Why didn't America do more to save Jews during the Holocaust?