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

Secretariat and his avoidance of independent action. Most private organizations, he went
on, viewed Sir Neill as “pleasant but of little real value.” Judge Hansson likewise was an
“agreeable, pleasant spoken man” who was “completely ineffective” as Chairman of the
technical sub-committee. 10
The White Commission, with its abbreviated sessions and constrained
testimonies clearly demonstrated that the central figures of the performance, the German
and Austrian Jews, merely played marginalized roles on the world’s diplomatic stage.
Britain would not modify its stance on Palestine. Most nations that had received refugees
preferred to be points of transit to other countries that were themselves resistant to Jewish
immigration. In an age of rising ethnic nationalism and economic stress it was unlikely
that alien Jews would be granted equal rights. Consequently, it became clearly evident
that the strategy of mass resettlement was an unachievable goal especially when coupled
with official German intransigence regarding release of seized funds. Projects of
resettlement in out of the way, less developed and underpopulated locales were
increasingly considered by the Europeans and the Roosevelt Administration as suitable
destinations for Jews. Such isolation, it was believed, would prevent the development of
domestic anti-Semitism. These plans, however, would have to subsidized by nongovernmental
sources, would take years to develop and could incorporate only small
numbers of individuals and families, leaving the remainder to face the whirlwind.
10 “Report of Myron C. Taylor to the Secretary of State in Washington about the Evian Conference, July
20, 1938” cited in Mendelsohn, The Holocaust, vol. 5, 249-264.
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