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

that would afford “immediate relief.” The Agency recognized, however, that the numbers
of immigrants that could be admitted into Palestine could not “be answered now with any
degree of certainty.” 87 The World Jewish Congress viewed the convening of the Evian
Conference as an historic event representing the “first attempt to evolve a constructive
and all-inclusive solution of the refugee problem” and believed it represented the “only
hope” for hundreds of thousands of persecuted Jews. The Congress called upon the
international missions to pressure the German Government into altering its economic
policies that place Jews into a “state of complete destitution.” The Evian Conference
would be a futile exercise in diplomacy if it failed to “raise a firm protest against this
shocking system which tramples underfoot the fundamental principles of justice and
humanity.” The World Congress also called for the inclusion of the Jews of Eastern
Europe who also faced involuntary displacement. New territories for immigration should
be sought in underdeveloped regions but would entail a slow and expensive process.
Palestine, the World Congress held, could absorb an annual quota of sixty thousand to
one hundred thousand refugees per year. Thus, it was necessary for the nations
represented at the Evian Conference to convince the United Kingdom to honor its
commitment to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine as outlined in the 1917
Balfour Declaration. 88
87 “Memorandum of the Jewish Agency, Palestine, to the Evian Conference” July 6, 1938 available from
http://www.zupdom.com/iconsmultimedia/ClientsArea/HoH/LIBARC/ARCHIVE/Chapters/Terror/RefugeeP/Memoran1.html
; Internet;
accessed May 15, 2010.
88 “Memorandum of the World Jewish Congress to the Evian Conference” July 6, 1938, S7/693, World
Jewish Congress Executive Committee Central Zionist Archive, Jerusalem available from
http://www.zupdom.com/iconsmultimedia/ClientsArea/HoH/LIBARC/ARCHIVE/Chapters/Terror/RefugeeP/Memoran2.html;
Internet;
accessed March 23, 2008.
148