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

PART III
HOPES DASHED
Chapter 11
“Unique Opportunity to Study Jewish Question”
World appeasement…was obviously the great objective towards which the great powers of the
world today must strive. 1
Overall, the Evian Conference failed to generate any positive, significant and
concrete results. It afforded a “unique opportunity to discuss the Jewish Question” on an
international stage and was the only conference held prior to the onset of World War II to
assist the targets of “racialist persecution.” 2 Its ineffectualness led to marked increases in
the global barriers to immigration and the sympathetic but shallow rhetoric expressed by
the Conference’s delegates emboldened the Nazis, accelerating the decline of the status
of Jews and non-Aryans within Greater Germany and culminated in the pogrom of
November 1938. Although the meeting was the result of a Presidential initiative it was
apparent to some observers that the United States’ approach involved the provision of
“helpfulness rather than direction.” Although American officials endeavored to facilitate
the construction of plans “we do not intend to be the final judges of whatever may be
done.” 3
1 Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles to Italian Ambassador February 1, 1938.
2 Katz, “Public Opinion,”105.
3 “Want to Quit Austria,” The Pueblo Indicator, July 16, 1938, 2.
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