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

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) viewed the Evian Conference as the
“most important step” taken towards solving the refugee crisis. Both the President and
Myron C. Taylor were owed the “gratitude of all lovers of humanity for their efforts to
make the conference a success.” Although the sole accomplishment of the Conference
was the establishment of the Intergovernmental Committee for Political Refugees the
discussions between the delegates was “heartening” as an “expression of human
principles.” While expressing gratitude for the conflation of the German and Austrian
quotas by the American Government the American Jewish Year Book (AJYB) criticized
the “disinclination of other countries” to accept increased numbers of refugees. The AJC
observed that the number of emigrants leaving the United States during 1931-1937
exceeded the number of immigrants by eighty thousand and cited a speech given by Lord
Winterton on January 26, 1939 that German and Austrian refugees had created new
industries employing 15,000 out of work Britons. 81 By 1941, however, during the early
years of the European War, the AJC had to admit that the IGCR had accomplished little
of note. 82 The Evian Conference also avoided any direct criticism of Nazi “policy towards
the Jews, however uncivilized and deplorable.” 83
There were a number of reasons for
81 Schneiderman, ed., The American Jewish Committee Thirty-Second Annual Report 1939, 635-636,
available from http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1939_1940_9_AJCAnnuaReport.pdf;
Internet; accessed June 11,2010.
82 Schneiderman, ed., The American Jewish Committee Thirty-Fourth Annual Report 1941, 744,
available from http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1941_1942_10_AJCAnnualReport.pdf ;
Internet; accessed June 11, 2010; American Jewish Year Book , vol. 61 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication
Society, 1960), 194.
113.
83 Henderson to Halifax, July 4, 1938, FO 371/22549, W 8887/104/98 cited in Sherman, Island Refuge,
277