Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany (Kensington, 2025)
A fascinating portrait of the progressive female trailblazer and US Secretary for Labor who navigated the foreboding rise of Nazism in her battle to make America a safer place for refugees.
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 INS—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.
Based on extensive research, including thousands of letters housed in the National Archives, Dear Miss Perkins adds new dimension to an already extraordinary life story, revealing at last how one woman tried to steer the nation to a better, more righteous course.
Praise for Dear Miss Perkins
“Graham is an ardent champion of her subject, sharing Perkins’s values and extolling her ‘diligence, empathy, integrity, and selflessness.’… Graham’s tight focus on Perkins’s struggles to help refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, despite American bigotry, casts a cold, fierce light on the Statue of Liberty’s promise of welcome to ‘your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’… A valuable exploration of one woman’s suborn crusade to save those who would have ended up in death camps.”
— Charlotte Gray, The Wall Street Journal“Graham’s extensive original research shines…Thought-provoking and long overdue… Perkins, as historian Rebecca Brenner Graham reveals in her illuminating new biography, Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts To Aid Refugees From Nazi Germany, was a woman molded by her Protestant religiosity, work in settlement houses, and identity as a member of the Progressive movement. Thus, she tirelessly and creatively undertook to admit immigrants, even taking on her governmental colleagues in the U.S. State Department. There is a crucial lesson for our times in Perkins’s career: even within an uncaring government bureaucracy, one person could make a difference, not only in what she was able to accomplish but also in what she was able to thwart.”
— Adina M. Yoffie, Contingent Magazine“Thanks to authors like Graham, everyday Americans are increasingly seeing Perkins as a role model who confirms their desire to change the world for the better. Amid this Perkins renaissance, Graham offers the details of a complex moment in history that needs to be widely known, especially as our national response to refugees and immigrants is yet again the topic of divisive debate. Dear Miss Perkins is timely in the extreme.”
— Charles Hoffacker, The Christian Century“A fascinating portrait of the progressive female trailblazer and U.S. Secretary for Labor who navigated the foreboding rise of Nazism in her battle to make America a safer place for refugees.”
— Sara Georgini, Smithsonian Magazine“Dear Miss Perkins brings a millennial’s perspective to Perkins’s life that incorporates issues of race, class, religion and ethnicity. The book examines how a daughter of privilege . . . became an advocate for labor and immigration.”
— Rich Tenorio, The Times of Israel“Rebecca Brenner Graham’s work examines a lesser-known legacy of pathbreaking social justice crusader Frances Perkins: her farsighted, resourceful humanitarian effort to help Jews fleeing the Holocaust find refuge in America. She has crafted a compelling portrait of Secretary Perkins’s fearlessness and compassion in the face of misogyny and bigotry.”
— Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island“Rebecca Brenner Graham’s Dear Miss Perkins is an excellent and long-overdue study of Frances Perkins’s compassionate and tireless efforts to aid Jewish refugees during one of history’s darkest times. Through meticulous research, Graham reveals the little-known battle Perkins fought behind the scenes in FDR’s administration, often at great personal cost. The detailed stories of individual refugees who sought her help — those she was able to save and those she couldn’t — are both moving and essential reading. This book is an invaluable resource for understanding Perkins’s legacy and would have been an indispensable aid in writing my own novel.”
— Stephanie Dray, New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Madam Secretary and America's First Daughter“Finally, proper attention is being paid to Frances Perkins and her dogged efforts to aid European Jews during the Holocaust. Rebecca Brenner Graham’s expansive and modern telling reminds us that there are historical figures to whom we can—and should—look for inspiration as we continue to face some of the same xenophobic, racist, antisemitic dynamics as Perkins did in the 1930s. You’ll emerge from this book with a new hero.”
— Rebecca Erbelding, Holocaust historian and author of the National Jewish Book Award-winning Rescue Board“Dear Miss Perkins tells the little-known story of how Labor Secretary Frances Perkins fought xenophobia, antisemitism, and intra-cabinet rivalry to champion Jews seeking refuge from the Nazis. The story is little-told in part because Perkins wanted it that way; she downplayed her own efforts to contemporary journalists and later historians. But Rebecca Brenner Graham doesn’t let that stand in her way. With deft prose and impeccable research, Graham gives Perkins the history she deserved in this inspiring tale.”
— Rebecca Boggs Roberts, author of Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson“Dear Miss Perkins offers a refreshing millennial perspective on the history of American immigration policy through the actions of Frances Perkins, one of the most under-appreciated women of the Roosevelt era. Meticulously researched and detailed, it goes far beyond Miss Perkins’s efforts to help Jewish refugees prior to the war. Dr. Graham paints a compelling portrait of a quiet hero who transcended the misogyny of her time, shattered glass ceilings, and rewrote the rules for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
— Paul Sparrow, former Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum“This insightful, incisive, singular new study of Frances Perkins’s effort to rescue European Jews in the late 1930s is timely. The antisemitism, xenophobia, and sexism Perkins confronted resonate, as America confronts new asylum seekers and another crisis of conscience. Graham’s engaging narrative is crisp, capturing characters and action with telling anecdotes and memorable descriptions. Both historians and history fans will enjoy this fast-paced, fact-packed page-turner.”
— Elisabeth Griffith, author of Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality: 1920-2020 and member of the Society of American HistoriansExcerpts
Slate (2025), Climb Not One Mountain
Stephanie Dray (2025), Introduction
Reviews
The Wall Street Journal (2025), ‘Dear Miss Perkins’ Review: Secretary and Savior
The Christian Century (2025), When Frances Perkins took on the bigots
Contingent Magazine (2025), Madam Secretary
San Diego Jewish World (2025), Frances Perkins, Nation’s First ‘Madam Secretary’ Tried to Help European Jewish Refugees
Profiles
Smithsonian Magazine (2025), How the Nation’s First ‘Madam Secretary’ Fought to Save Jewish Refugees Fleeing from Nazi Germany
The Times of Israel (2025), How trailblazing US labor secretary Frances Perkins quietly lobbied for Holocaust refugees
Contingent Magazine (2025), How Rebecca Brenner Graham Does History
Mount Holyoke News (2025), Rebecca Brenner Graham ‘15 celebrates launch of her new book, Dear Miss Perkins
Mount Holyoke (2025), Coffee chat with Rebecca Brenner Graham ‘15
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb (2025), Q&A with Rebecca Brenner Graham
The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle (2025), Author visiting to discuss book about first woman to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet
National Archives News (2023), History Fellow Examines Frances Perkins’s Immigration Policy
Essays
Ms. Magazine (2025), ‘What Do We Call You?’ The Many Names of Frances Perkins — the First Woman Presidential Cabinet Member
Jewish Women’s Archive (2025), Frances Perkins and the Antisemitic Conspiracy That Never Faded
Contingent Magazine (2025), The Last Frontier
Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly (2025), Mount Holyoke Loved Her Back
TIME (2025), The 1930s Case That Sparked a Debate About Deportation
TIME (2024), Frances Perkins Was the First Woman to Serve in a U.S. Presidential Cabinet. It’s No Coincidence She’s Having a Moment
White House Historical Association (2024), Frances Perkins: Breaking Glass Ceilings in the Cabinet
Nursing Clio (2023), Why the First Woman Matters: Traversing Barriers in the Archives