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

The U.S. State Department also agreed to avoid broaching the subject of
Palestine. The Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs, Wallace Murray, advised
the American Consul General in Jerusalem, Wadsworth, that it was highly likely that
“various groups” would seek to influence the representatives of the foreign governments
attending the Evian Conference to take up the issue of Jewish immigration into Palestine.
Such actions should be avoided as “Zionist and non-Zionist questions” would generate
“bitter passions” that threatened the success of the meeting. 143
Following the announcement of the Evian Conference, Germany exerted pressure
upon Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Rumania and Hungary to hold a counter-conference
which met in Bled, Yugoslavia during the latter half of August 1938. The conferees
called for a further international meeting that would deal with the global aspects of the
Jewish Question and emigration. However, the apparent impotency of the
Intergovernmental Committee for Political Refugees from Germany led the Reich to
abandon support for such a project. 144
The final list of invitees included Australia, the Argentine Republic, Belgium,
Bolivia, Brazil, United Kingdom, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Ireland, Mexico, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Sweden,
Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela and of course, the United States. Poland, Hungary,
143 Murray to Wallace, July 2, 1938, 867N.01/1106, FRUS, vol. 1, 752.
220.
144 Joseph Tenenbaum, Race and Reich: The Story of an Epoch (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976),
102