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War Refugee Board, Ira Hirschmann, Britain, Aliyah Activities in Istanbul, 1944 271
refugees, but only if the Allies guaranteed to replace the ships in case of
sinking. In sum, the ambassador held out little hope for large-scale Jewish
emigration from the Balkans, and therefore felt that pressure on the Turks
to relax their own position was unwarranted.
Despite his preference tor a general response to the questions put to him,
however, Steinhardt consistently refrained from dealing with the shift in the
posture of the Balkan countries toward Germany, and their desire to demonstrate
this, among other things, through their Jewish policy. Thus, he did
not elaborate on the opening this presented for pushing rescue to the fore
(although he encouraged the State Department in the fall to pursue the
Rumanians on their Jewish policy). His position was in fact consistent with
the attitude of a diplomatic officer whose responsibility, as he saw it, was to
prevent new friction from developing in interstate relations. From this point
of view, rescue initiatives might well be seen as the source of just such friction,
even though the newly created WRB signaled a change in national policy.
Steinhardt nevertheless saw fit to point out that he was on friendly terms with
figures active in rescue work and had in the past been instrumental in facilitating
their activities.
The tone of Steinhardt's message was not encouraging with respect to the
policy initiative upon which the WRB meant to embark. It seemed to warn
of a deterioration in delicate U.S.-Turkish relations. It is quite possible, too,
that the State Department's instructions to its ambassador, stressing the distinction
between political and humanitarian aspects of U. S. policy, was responsible
for the line Steinhardt took.
This was the situation when Ira Hirschmann arrived on the WRB assignment
of saving Jewish lives. A prominent Jewish businessman, Hirschmann
was also a close associate of Pehle, chairman of the WRB. As a member of
the U. S. delegation to the Evian Conference (1938), Hirschmann had already
had some experience in the refugee field. He had been involved in the Revisionist
Emergency Committee and was proposed by it, as early as September
1943, to aid Jewish rescue work in Turkey. At the time, however, Ambassador
Steinhardt insisted that it was unnecessary for him to go to Turkey, as many
Jewish organizations were already represented there; one more would hardly
be beneficial, in his view. 8 Thus, Hirschmann's departure for Turkey was
delayed until after the formation of the WRB. Even then, he left the United
States as a private individual, receiving his official credentials only en route.
His stay in Turkey consisted of the initial six weeks he spent there: from 26
February to 8 April 1944, and then from June to September.
En route to Turkey, Hirschmann stopped for a few days in Palestine to
meet with the heads of the Jewish Agency and the Rescue Committee. In
Cairo, he was informed by British officials on the rescue situation and on
British policy. Once in Istanbul, he was briefed by the American diplomatic
corps and Jewish representatives from Palestine and Jewish organizations.
He also talked with news correspondents who, through many years of experience
had acquired knowledge both of the Turkish elite and the Jews in
the Balkan countries. Hirschmann formed an especially close working rela-