19.02.2015 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

efugees whose residency permits had expired would face deportation back to Germany<br />

or arrest and imprisonment. Also, refugees who failed to obtain gainful employment<br />

faced similar consequences. Following Kristallnacht the Daladier Government issued a<br />

decree calling for the establishment <strong>of</strong> detention camps for illegal refugees and for those<br />

who failed to meet the terms <strong>of</strong> the May 1938 decree. An additional edict, issued on<br />

April 12, 1939, called for obligatory labor and military service for political refugees who<br />

had resided within France for more than two months. <strong>The</strong> border security police were<br />

empowered to block the entry <strong>of</strong> any refugee that was considered unfit for military<br />

service or hard labor. 22<br />

Following the closing <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Evian</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> the U.S. Government dispatched<br />

<strong>of</strong>ficials to ascertain the current situation <strong>of</strong> “potential refugees” within Greater Germany.<br />

State Department Counsel George Brandt visited Vienna, Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg.<br />

<strong>The</strong> purpose <strong>of</strong> the “Brandt Mission” was to obtain data from “American sources”<br />

regarding the nature and number <strong>of</strong> people seeking to leave Germany under the auspices<br />

<strong>of</strong> the IGCR and a report was to be submitted in London by August 7. 23<br />

By July 18 the<br />

American Consul General in Berlin announced that further applications for visas into the<br />

U.S. would no longer be accepted due to heavy demand. Ten thousand files involving<br />

fifteen thousand refugees were already under review. More than sixty thousand requests<br />

had already been submitted for an annual quota <strong>of</strong> approximately 27,370. <strong>The</strong> State<br />

22 Taylor to FDR report “<strong>The</strong> Tragic Position <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Jewish</strong> Refugees in France,” December 1938 and the<br />

new decree-laws April-August1939 cited in Maga, “Closing the Door,” 438-439.<br />

23 St. Petersburg Times, July 16, 1938. Brandt served as a Turkish language <strong>of</strong>ficer for the State<br />

Department in Constantinople and Cairo and had a number <strong>of</strong> consular assignments. He served as the<br />

Assistant Chief <strong>of</strong> the Visa Office from 1924-1928 and aided the House Committee on Immigration in the<br />

writing <strong>of</strong> the Immigration Act <strong>of</strong> 1924. He served as a technical advisor to the <strong>Evian</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> and<br />

IGCR and in 1938-39 served as an immigration advisor in the Philippine Islands.<br />

243

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!