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

sufficient capital to “create employment opportunities, new markets or new trade
possibilities.” 51
The conservative paper, L’Ordre, urged the French authorities to follow
the British lead of offering refuge in their Empire. The daily suggested that a sizeable
number of Jewish families could be relocated to Madagascar and such settlers “would
soon discover the joy of living through work and love of a new country.” 52
However, the Minister of Colonies George Mandel, a Jew, warned on June 21
that any “Jewish colonization in our overseas domains” would result in “more numerous
dangers than advantages.” 53
The spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior Bureau of
Algerian Affairs ruled out re-settlement in this North African Colony due to Arab
hostilities coupled with the urban background of the refugees who may have become
tainted with socialist or communist ideologies. In addition, the poor local economy and
lack of employment would undoubtedly place the new arrivals on the public dole. 54 The
right wing group L’Action française opposed any resettlement of Jews in the colonies.
“It would be inadmissible to deliver up merchants, French colonists, as well as natives of
51 Emile Roche, “Pour une négociation,” La République, August 3, 1938, 1. Ibid, 219.
52 “La France doit fair un geste de solidarité en faveur des juifs chassées d’Allegmagne,” L’Ordre,
November 19, 1938. Ibid., 220.
53 Minister of Colonies to the Foreign Ministry (Europe), June 21, 1938, MAE, SDN, I M 1815, 220-
221. Ibid., 183. Mandel warned George Bonnet on May 25, 1938 that the Madagascar “affair” posed
“ticklish political problems” for the Government. Transfer of Jews to another territory would give
credence to the belief in the existence of a “Jewish question.” France risked appearing to be in agreement
with certain foreign views that Jews were not “citizens but…outsiders properly subject to a special statute”
and dependent upon the forbearance of the host nation. Such acquiescence on the part of the French
Government to such a view risked “encouraging the very persecutions and harsh measures that have helped
provoke the exodus of Jewish populations.” In addition, Mandel argued, could not the country of origin of
the refugees (implying Germany) lay claim to any future “large and prosperous communities” successfully
established by “Jewish colonists”? Mandel to Bonnet, May 25, 1938, French Foreign Ministry Archives
cited in Michael R. Marrus and Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews (Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 1995), 62.
54 Minister of the Interior (Direction du contrôle de la comptabilité des affaires algériennes), 4ème
bureau, to the Foreign Ministry (Europe), July 2, 1938, MAE, SDN, I M 1816, 25-26. Ibid., 183.
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