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

Christopher Sykes has argued that the Zionists viewed the Evian Conference
with “hostile indifference” and that any success would have lessened the pressure to grant
Jews a National Homeland and diminished the “heightened enthusiasm of Jews with
Palestine. This was the last thing the Zionist leaders wished for…” 55 Noah Lucas agreed
that the failure of the Evian Conference was not a setback for the Zionist movement.
Rather, its success would “have eased the pressure in Palestine.” 56 Zionists, according to
Henry Mentor, executive vice-president of the United Jewish Appeal, did not envision the
rescue and Aliyah [emigration of Jews to Palestine] of all Central European Jews but
called for “selectivity.” Young men and women, with training in agriculture or other
beneficial industries and who were prepared for the rigors of life in a developing
Palestine, were the ideal candidates for resettlement. Mentor warned that “there could be
no more deadly ammunition provided to the enemies of Zionism” than the inundation of
Palestine with “very old people or with undesirables.” Until Palestine had reached a
suitable level of development only 30,000-60,000 Jews could be admitted per year. 57
55 Christopher Sykes, Crossroads to Israel 1917-1948 (London: 1973), 188-191.
56 Noah Lucas, The Modern History of Israel (Praeger: NY, 1975), 458fn.
57 Ben Hecht, Perfidy, (NY: Julian Messner, 1961), fn 7, 255 cited in Greenstein, “Zionism”. Ben Hecht
(February 28, 1894-April 18, 1964) was a noted playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director and producer
who became an active Zionist. Hecht described the bitterness and frustration of Jews unable to escape the
Reich in a rhyme included in an ad in the September 14, 1943 New York Times entitled the “Ballad of the
Doomed Jews of Europe”: “Four Million Jews waiting for death./ Oh hang and burn, but--quiet, Jews/
Don’t be bothersome; save your breath/ The world is busy with other news/ Four Million murders are
quite a smear/ Even our State Department views/ The slaughter with much disfavor here/ But then—it’s
busy with other news. "Oh World be patient--it will take / Some time before the murder crews / Are done.
By Christmas you can make / Your Peace on Earth without the Jews.” Ted Gottfried, Displaced Persons:
The Liberation and Abuse of Holocaust Survivors (Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Books, 2001),
58;“A Child of the Century” by Ben Hecht available from
http://www.saveisrael.com/others/hecht/hechtchild.htm; Internet; accessed August 4, 2010; “Christmas
Without Jews: A Holocaust Controversy” by Rafael Medoff ( December 2003) available from
http://www.wymaninstitute.org/articles/2003-12-christmas.php; Internet; accessed August 4, 2010.
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