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

chaired by the Australian Minister of Commerce, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas W. White
(who openly opposed immigration into Australia), included emissaries from Belgium, the
United Kingdom, United States, France, Mexico, Peru, Cuba, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and
Venezuela. Testimony would be restricted to those “organizations concerned with the
relief of political refugees from Germany (including Austria)” and a memorandum would
be submitted to the general meeting synopsizing the presentations.
Thirty nine refugee organizations were in attendance at the Evian Conference
but only twenty four were ultimately permitted to address the Sub-Committee limited by
severe time constraints. Each group would be allowed one spokesman who would be
granted a maximum of ten minutes; later abbreviated to five minutes. 4
Although these
Private Voluntary Organizations (PVO) were expected to finance any resettlement project
they were allowed to participate only in an unofficial capacity. 5
Four different strategies
or themes resonated among these PVO’s: 1. Mass emigration to Palestine coupled with a
relaxation of the British imposed quota; 2. Assimilation within lands of temporary haven;
3. Resettlement in remote and underdeveloped territories and 4. Granting minority rights
to Jews in nations offering sanctuary. 6
The Jewish representatives were “marched in one
at a time, like military defaulters brought up before their commanding officer,” allowed
to make their presentation and answer questions (if any were asked) and then
“dismissed.” The hearing was handled by the chairman, T.W. White, with such
4 Proceedings of the Evian Conference July 7, 1938, 24; Breitman, American Refugee Policy, 103. Out
of the thirty nine refugee groups attending the meeting twenty were Jewish; Anthony Read and David
Fisher, Kristallnacht: The Nazi Night of Terror (NY: Random House, 1989), 231.
5 Resolution adopted by the Intergovernmental Committee (Evian) on July 14, 1938, Proceedings of the
Intergovernmental Committee, 54.
6 Adler-Rudel, “Evian Conference,” 256.
156