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

arter agreements between the Latin American Republics and Germany would be
potentially at jeopardy despite the Reich’s needs for foreign raw materials and other
commodities. Thus, these nations opposed any overt criticism of the anti-Semitic policies
of Germany. The demographic composition of the refugees themselves served to put a
brake on the willingness of Latin American to accept displaced aliens. Agricultural
workers and entrepreneurs were needed more than professionals, merchants or
intellectuals. 54
Gustav Rasmussen, the Danish representative and member of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, affirmed that despite the “best of good will” the nations of Europe could
not solve the German and Austrian refugee crisis without the aid of “other continents.”
Denmark, like the other states bordering Germany, already had to “bear their heavy part
of the burden thrown on them by circumstances.” His nation was afflicted by widespread
unemployment and had served primarily as a country of “emigration.” Prior to the
outbreak of the Great War over eight thousand Danes left for the Western Hemisphere
per year with the number falling to six thousand per year after peace was concluded.
However, during the most recent time period emigration had “virtually ceased entirely.”
Nonetheless, the Danish Government had admitted “very large numbers” of political
refugees from Germany but was still willing to collaborate in finding a workable and
realistic solution to a refugee problem which was “immense, difficult and complicated
but [not] insoluble.” 55
54 Feingold, Politics of Rescue, 32.
55 “Proceedings,” July 9, 1938, 30.
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