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

e returned to Germany and Austria. 43
Such a policy represented, according to Vicki
Caron, a “virtual death sentence to the right of asylum in France” and became the basis
upon which French policy was framed at the Evian Conference. 44
Bérenger’s views reverberated in moderate newspapers such as Le Temps which
likewise declared that France was “saturated” with aliens and could only serve as a point
of transit. France needed to ensure that its “physical, moral and intellectual equilibrium
[was] not abruptly disrupted by a pronounced influx of elements too different and
sometimes unassimilable.” 45
Such refugees were a threat to domestic employment, a
potential source of crime, a burden to social services and “at times [they would] mar the
physical appearance of our cities.” Therefore, a strategy of highly judicious immigration
would need to be followed in view of “the numerical [dis]proportion between natives and
foreigners,” while remaining cognizant of the declining birth rates among the French.
“The unfortunate fact is that, alas, it is not the elites of Europe…who are flocking to
us.” 46
Following the adoption of the Nuremberg Race Laws France enacted an official
policy of impeding the entry of refugees and attempted to utilize the League High
Commissioner as a means of removing those who had already found temporary sanctuary
on French soil. 47 Minister of the Interior Sarraut announced in the Decree law of May 2,
43 “Note: a/s réfugiés austrichiens. Réunion du Comitée d’Evian,” June 13, 1938, Ministère des Affaires
Etrangères (MAE), Paris, Société des Nations (SDN), 1 M 1815, 156-161. Ibid., 184.
44 Ibid., 184
45 "Le Problème des réfugiés,” editorial, Le Temps, July 8, 1938, 1. Ibid., 278.
46 “Les Etrangers en France,” editorial, Le Temps, May 16, 1938, 1. Ibid., 279.
47 Ibid., 39.
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