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

“enemy aliens” that remained incarcerated until December 1943 when the camps were
formally closed. 98
Citing his nation’s “traditional policy” towards immigration,” Tomas Le Breton,
the Argentine delegate (concerned that the United States and Great Britain were
attempting to pressure Latin America into becoming the dumping ground for the
refugees), acknowledged that his country had received the greatest number of Jews,
second only to the United States. However, if the factors of geographic size and native
population were inserted into the equation then Argentina had accepted a far greater
proportion of the forced émigrés than did its North American counterpart. During 1935
for every forty eight Jewish refugees admitted into the U.S thirty two entered Argentina;
considering the fact that the American population was ten times that of his country
Breton deemed the Argentine contribution to the refugee crisis to be particularly
“striking.” Taking into account South America as a whole Argentina had accepted more
refugees than any other nation on the continent. Consequently, Le Breton believed that
Argentina had satisfied its “duty of solidarity and collaboration” in the present
humanitarian crisis. Agricultural entrepreneurs and workers possessing certain technical
skills were preferred candidates for entry but care had to be taken to avoid overwhelming
the domestic labor market. Argentina would carefully safeguard its national rights “in all
matters relating to the manner in which, and the means by which, immigrants will be
allowed to enter and establish themselves in our country…” 99
98 Paula Jean Draper, “Muses Behind Barbed Wire,” in The Muses, 272-81 cited in Donna F. Ryan, The
Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1996) , 135-137.
99 “Proceedings,” July 7, 1938, 21-22.
189