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

Jews and Jewish groups around the world responded to Roosevelt’s invitation
with expressions of appreciation and support. A joint cable, signed by noted
philanthropist and the Pittsburgh owner of the Kaufman Department Stores, Edgar J.
Kaufmann, was sent from the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish
Congress, the B’nai B’rith and the Jewish Labor Committee to Myron Taylor wishing the
Conference success in achieving an “effective and speedy solution” of the refugee
crisis. 83 The German Jewish newspaper, Centralverein Zeitung (C.V. Zeitung), the
official publication of the Centralverein deutscher Stastsbürger jüdischen Glaubens
(Central Union of German Citizens of Jewish Faith) posted a headline: “Are the Doors
Opening?” Alfred Hirschberg, a liberal German attorney and editor-in-chief, believed
that deliverance lay just beyond the horizon. A CV Zeitung reporter, upon arrival in
Geneva, became skeptical that the international gathering would bear any fruit. Such
pessimism was echoed by Der Schild (The Shield) which represented the National League
of Jewish Frontline Veterans. The Jüdische Rundschau (Jewish Review) of Robert
Weltsch, on the other hand, alleged that the Evian Conference carried great symbolic
value focusing international attention on the Jewish Question, “one of the great public
problems of our time” which would be greatly aided by American leadership and
participation. 84
83 The Pittsburgh Press, July 8, 1938, 5.
84 Centralverein Zeitung, March 31, 1938; Alfred Hirschberg, “Thoughts for Évian Conference,”
Centralverein Zeitung, June 9, 1938;CV Zeitung, June 23, 1938; Der Schild, June 24, 1938; “Today Évian
Comes to a Close,” Jüdische Rundschau, July 15, 1938 cited in John V. H. Dippel, Bound Upon a Wheel
of Fire: Why So Many German Jews Made the Tragic Decision to Remain in Nazi Germany (NY: Basic
Books, 1996), 225-226, 232. The CV was founded in Germany during the late nineteenth century as a
response to rising German anti-Semitism and listed 72,500 members in 1924. It became the most
influential and largest German Jewish organization representing the liberal middle class and called for
greater assimilation of Jews into German society and culture and maintained an anti-Zionist stance until
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