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

experience” Jewish immigration had never “been so carefully controlled.” 84 However,
Blair predicted that a successful Evian Conference would in essence reward the Germans
by solving their Jewish Question and would undoubtedly encourage other Powers to
follow similar policies which represented the “greatest danger” to Canada. Encouraging
the resettlement of refugees was “akin in a sense to the paying of ransom to Chinese
bandits.” 85
Blair offered what he considered to be constructive criticism to the Jewish
community. It “might be a very good thing,” he believed, if Jewry engaged in a period of
“humiliation and prayer” during which they would come to terms with the “question of
why they are so unpopular almost everywhere.” Christians should “frankly” explain the
reasons for their disapproval instead of engaging in anti-Semitism. Blair did not doubt
that the Jews would be as readily as accepted as “our Scandinavian friends” if they
successfully divested themselves of their negative “habits.” 86
Although Nazi anti-Semitic policies placed Jews at risk of “extinction” in Europe
he did not imagine that admission to Canada would resolve the ubiquitous Jewish
dilemma. 87 The Immigration Minister later opposed the landing of Jewish refugees from
the ill-fated S.S. St. Louis during May 1939, believing that the granting of asylum would
84 Abella, None is Too Many, 8.
85 Blair memorandum, April 19, 1938. Ibid. 20.
86 Blair to F.N. Sclanders, September 13, 1938. Ibid., 9.
87 Blair to Judd, October, 1938. Ibid., 35.
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