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

The Evian Conference was not an “international conference,” Bérenger advised,
but an “Intergovernmental Committee…not a forum for eloquent speeches… [but serving
as] a center for the coordinated work of practical experts.” While pledging his country’s
cooperation he warned that France had “already almost exhausted her own resources”
which, unfortunately, did not exceed “her zeal to serve the cause of humanity.” The
French nation could not be expected to allow further entry of “homeless German
wanderers.” 40 He, like the other European and United States delegates, expected that the
“new countries” of Latin America should bear the brunt of resettlement. 41
Bérenger,
while acting as France’s representative to the League of Nations’ High Commission for
Refugees (HCR), had already declared in December 1933 that France must function as a
nation of transit or “way station” rather than serve the role of final destination. 42
The Chief of the Sûreté, Jean Berthoin, argued that the economic depression
had forced France to accept only those refugees who possessed transit visas for other
states, proper documentation, sufficient funds or the requisite skills that would benefit the
national economy or augment the “intellectual patrimony of our country.” “The present
state of saturation” prevented continuation of an open door immigration policy. France
could no longer accept the “’waste products of the entire Austrian or German
immigration.” The Minister of the Interior Albert Sarraut and Berthoin ordered the border
security forces to carry out the policy of “refouler without mercy.” The unwanted would
40 “Proceedings,” July 6, 1938, 15-16.
41 St. Petersburg Times, July 6 and 8, 1938.
42 Caron, Uneasy Asylum, 15.
171