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

Indochina or Madagascar, to the claws of German Jewish usurers.” 55 Roosevelt, however,
had wanted the issue of colonial resettlement discussed at Evian and during June 1938 the
State Department encouraged France to consider the possibilities of Madagascar. The
U.S. agreed not to raise this issue on the Evian Conference agenda due to Western
European fears that such action would stimulate the forced emigration of Eastern
European Jews. 56
American pressure to open up colonial holdings for refugees was, however,
exerted upon the United Kingdom and France following the end of the conference.
Taylor suggested, during September 1938, that France resettle thirty thousand refugees
from Central Europe in its overseas Empire over a period of five years. The French
Government was expected to provide the land but the costs were to be borne by Jewish
organizations. Undersecretary of State Welles continued to press this issue from mid-
October, especially highlighting the prospects of Madagascar. 57 Ultimately, following
Kristallnacht, Prime Minister Daladier pledged to Welles that France would accept forty
thousand Jewish refugees in Madagascar while Foreign Minister George Bonnet
promised that France would accept a limited number of Jewish refugees in its colonies as
long as America and Britain acted in a similar manner. 58
Similar concerns and conditions affected other European nations who expected
the nations of the Americas to accept the majority of the refugees due to their smaller
55 “Va-t-on ressusciter le projet d’émigration juive aux colonies françaises?” Action française,
November 27, 1948, Archives, Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU), ms. 650, box 14 (47). Ibid., 220.
56 Roosevelt to Myron Taylor, January 14, 1939, 840.48 Refugees/1290B, FRUS, 1939,66-69
57 Ibid., 220.
58 Ibid., 221.
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