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

devise a “long-range program of [a] comprehensive scale” that would solve the problem
of “political refugees.” 25
The “urgency” of the present situation led President Roosevelt to convene the
Evian Conference. Taylor believed that the current humanitarian problem differed from
earlier migrations. 26 Instead, the modern world faced an “artificially stimulated” exodus
generated by the policies of “some countries” (Germany was not specifically) that
resulted in the creation of “great bodies of reluctant migrants who must be absorbed in
abnormal circumstances at a time of stress.” The scope of the problem was so “vast and
complex” that only international cooperation could create a mechanism that would lead to
a “practicable amelioration of the condition of the unfortunate human beings with whom
we are concerned.” The only realistic goal of the initial Evian Conference, therefore,
would be to establish the groundwork for the “machinery” of an intergovernmental body,
preferably based in Paris that would over time devise a practical solution. While ideally
all international refugee situations should be under the auspices of the League Assembly
necessity required focusing on the “most pressing” issue of “political refugees” stemming
from Germany and Austria. Therefore, the subjects of the committee would be limited to
migrants who sought to leave the Reich because of “their political opinions, religious
beliefs or racial origins” and those who had already left and were residing in temporary
havens. Significantly, Taylor never used the word “Jew.” Age would play a role in the
25 “Text of Taylor’s Address at Refugee Parley,” New York Times, July 7, 1938, 9.
26 Ibid. Taylor categorized earlier periods of mass migration: the “hostile movement of whole peoples
advancing as military or political waves” into regions that were already developed; “colonization
movements” under the auspices of organized governments; the migrations of the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries involving individuals and families as a consequences of “unsatisfactory economic and living
conditions” in their nation of origin and the hope for a better life.
163