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

communism (which he postulated was the source of Nazism) would lead Christians to
“extend the right hand of sympathy towards the persecuted Jews in Germany.” 38
The Veterans of Foreign Wars adopted a resolution calling for a complete
cessation of immigration into the United States for a period of ten years. Mrs. William
Baker, President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution, argued that the
Federal Government should not “meddle in the affairs of other nations” and called for a
more restrictive immigration policy and increased aid to American citizens. 39 The
American Legion Executive Committee opposed any move to liberalize the entry of
“political and religious refugees” into the United States. Such action would be “inimical
to the welfare” of the nation. Although the Legion was sensitive to the predicament of
the victims of German policies its responsibilities toward “our own citizens under the
present distressing circumstances compels consideration even to the exclusion of those in
foreign countries, however sympathetic we may be to them in their present plight.” 40
Representative Edward T. Taylor (Dem., CO) demanded reassurances from the
Administration that American involvement in the Evian Conference would not result in
an “invitation to use the United States as a dumping ground for all these people.” 41
Representative Martin Dies, Chairman of the House Committee on Un-American
Activities, warned Secretary of State Cordell Hull that the Evian Conference would result
38 Charles E. Coughlin, Am I an Anti-Semite? (Detroit: Condon Printing, 1939), 94-95, 104-6 cited in
Robert H. Abzug, “Father Coughlin ‘From Am I an Anti-Semite?’ December 18, 1938,” America Views the
Holocaust 1933-1945: A Brief Documentary History (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999), 77-82.
39 The United States News, April 4, 1938.
40 “Legion Opposed to Quota Increase,” The Sentinel, May 12, 1938, 35.
41 Manus I. Midlarsky, The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005), 244.
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