Operation Texas was an undercover operation to relocate European Jews to Texas, USA, away from Nazi persecution.
In 1938, Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), then a Congressman and later the 36th President of the United States of America, worked covertly to establish a refuge in Texas for European Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. Johnson helped hundreds of European Jews enter Texas through Cuba, Mexico and South America.
In part, Johnson was influenced in his attitude towards the Jews by the religious beliefs that his family, especially his grandfather (Samuel Ealy Johnson, Sr.), who was a member of the Christadelphian church, shared with him. Christadelphians believe that the Jews are God's chosen people, and LBJ's grandfather once said to him, "Take care of the Jews, God’s chosen people. Consider them your friends and help them any way you can." In reference to Operation Texas, Texas historian James M. Smallwood commented that LBJ "apparently took seriously his grandfather's charge."
Famous quotes containing the words operation and/or texas:
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“I not only rejoice, but congratulate my beloved country Texas is reannexed, and the safety, prosperity, and the greatest interest of the whole Union is secured by this ... great and important national act.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)