Evian Conference

The Evian Conference was convened at the initiative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in July, 1938 to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees. For nine days, from July 6 to July 15, delegates from thirty-two countries met at Évian-les-Bains, France. However, not much was accomplished, since most western countries were reluctant to accept Jewish refugees. The conference failed to pass even a resolution condemning German treatment of the Jews, a fact that was widely used in Nazi propaganda. The lack of action further emboldened Hitler, proving to him that no country had the moral fortitude to oppose Nazism's assault on European Jewry.

Background

By 1938, some 150,000 out of about 500,000 German Jews managed to flee Germany, but the territories of Europe recently conquered by the Nazis also had sizable Jewish populations. Many Jewish refugees were unable to find countries willing to accept them.

Before the Conference, the United States and Great Britain made an agreement with each other; the British promised not to bring up the fact that the US was not filling its immigration quotas if the Americans refrained from mentioning Palestine as a possible destination for refugees.

Proceedings

In the course of the conference, the delegates expressed sympathy for the refugees, but offered only excuses for not letting in more refugees.

Many countries turned up to offer their support - USA, England, Belgium, and Holland were just some.

No high-level official was sent by the US. Myron C. Taylor, an American businessman and a friend of Roosevelt, represented the US at the conference and stated that the American contribution was to make the German and Austrian immigration quota fully available. The Australian delegate noted: "as we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one." The French delegate stated that France had reached "the extreme point of saturation as regards admission of refugees", a sentiment repeated by most other representatives. The only country willing to accept many Jews was the Dominican Republic but the offer lacked specificity.

In her autobiography My Life (1975), Golda Meir described her outrage being in "the ludicrous capacity of the observer from Palestine, not even seated with the delegates, although the refugees under discussion were my own people..." After the conference, Meir told the press: "There is only one thing I hope to see before I die and that is that my people should not need expressions of sympathy anymore" ([http://www.mscd.edu/~golda/GOLDA%20MEIR%20OUTLINE.pdf). Chaim Weizmann was quoted in The Manchester Guardian as saying: "The world seemed to be divided into two parts – those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."

Aftermath

Noting "that the involuntary emigration of people in large numbers has become so great that it renders racial and religious problems more acute, increases international unrest, and may hinder seriously the processes of appeasement in international relations", the Evian Conference established the International Committee on Refugees (ICR) with the purpose to "approach the governments of the countries of refuge with a view to developing opportunities for permanent settlement." The ICR received little authority or support from its member nations and fell off into inaction.

External links

Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany

Konferenz von Evian | Conférence d'Évian (1938) | ועידת אוויאן

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Background

Proceedings

Aftermath

See also

External links