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

skepticism as a shallow expression of an “idealistic gesture.” The appointment of Lord
Winterton, an “outspoken anti-Semite” to represent the British delegation represented the
“best illustration of [the] lack of sympathy with the spirit of the conference…”
Zukerman concluded that the Evian Conference would “open auspiciously” but
“complete failure” could only be averted by the application of “American courage, youth
and sincerity…” 71
Overall, the Evian Conference provided little comfort to the involuntary
refugees and represented a “cruel” disillusionment to Jewish representatives and their
sympathizers who attended the meeting. 72 Hannah Rosen, a young German Jewish
woman widowed at an early age, managed to acquire a visa admitting her into the United
States. She noted in her diary, following the conclusion of the conference on July 16 that
Jewish hopes had been raised by the President “making it seem as if something would be
done. However, nothing was accomplished. Was it all for show?” After the equally
ineffectual Bermuda Conference in April 1943 Rosen observed that, as with its Evian
predecessor, the American Government had once again chosen the path of “all words and
no action.” 73 Beit-zvi regarded the conferences failure as symbolic of the Christian
world’s “indifference” and “hypocrisy” to the fate of the Jewish people. 74
71 William Zukermam, “Is the Evian Conference Doomed to Failure? Hopes and Fears for the Refugee
Parley,” The Jewish Criterion, July 15, 1938, 12, 16, 17 available from
http://pjn.library.cmu.edu/books/pages.cgi?call=CRI_1938_092_010_07151938&layout=vol0/part0/copy0
&file=0012; Internet; accessed July 15, 2010.
72 Walter Laqueur and Judith Tydor Baumel, The Holocaust Encyclopedia (Willard, Ohio: R.R.
Donnelley & Sons, 2001), 174.
73 Elizabeth S. Rothschild, “The Diary of Hannah Rosen: Europe’s Jews and America’s Response, 1937-
1945” available from http://remember.org/educate/hrdiary.html; Internet; accessed June 26, 2010.
74 Beit-Zvi, Post-Ugandan Zionism, 138.
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