The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

influenced by the opinion of social activist, Jane Addams, who contended immigration
created future consumers who would strengthen the domestic economy. 92 Jewish
Presidential advisor Ben Cohen assumed that if the conference ended in failure then Nazi
Germany could be blamed for creating and facilitating the international refugee
problem. 93
Others believed that the consultation was part of a “subtle and far-reaching
international campaign” to promote the benefits of democracy in a world in which
totalitarianism appeared to be ascendant. In addition, any attempt to proffer aid to “fearridden
minorities abroad, be they Jewish or Christian, German, Italian, Russian or
Spanish” would reap political benefits in an election year by touching “a responsive
chord in a considerable group” of domestic voters bound by “ties of blood, of race, of
religious or political philosophy.” 94
Some writers believed that the American initiative
for the conference symbolized a return of an increasingly isolationist United States to the
affairs of Europe and sent a “clear political warning” to Hitler and his Government. 95
Roosevelt’s involvement allowed the Administration to cast the United States in the
iconic role of protector of human rights but at little cost to the Nation. Other nations
were expected to share in the burden of resettlement. 96
92 Feingold, Politics of Rescue, 23.
93 Herbert Pell to Moffat, September 10, 1938, Houghton Library, Harvard, cited in Breitman, American
Refugee Policy, 61.
94 “Refugee Plan Pushes Ideal of Democracy,” Tampa Tribune, March 27, 1938, 14.
95 Tribune de Genève (Paul de Bouchet), July 7, 1938 cited in Shlomo Katz, “Public Opinion in Western
Europe of the Evian Conference of July 1938,” Yad Vashem Studies 9 (1973): 110.
96 Ronald J. Berger, Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach (NY: Walter de Gruyter,
Inc.: 2002), 96.
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