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

shoulder its share of the problem.” 108
“Humanitarianism,” according to the Philadelphia
Record, sustained a “new blow” as the conference failed to rescue the “unhappy exiles”
of Europe. 109 Gerald Gross described the German and Austrian Jews and non-Aryans as
“pathetic pawns” for whom the Evian Conference was convened. The meeting had been
a “disappointment if not altogether a surprise” to the refugees and their supporters for no
sooner had the opening session begun delegates arose to say “We feel sorry for the
refugees and potential refugees but…” 110
The Daily Herald asked “if this is coming to
the help of the refugees, then what would the nations do if they meant to desert them?” 111
Former High Commissioner and chair of the President’s Committee for Political
Refugees James G. McDonald claimed in 1944 that the “international organizations have
almost never faced the realities of the tragedy” of the refugee crisis but instead engaged
in “face saving maneuvers while millions of innocent men and women have been
needlessly sacrificed.” 112 Sumner Welles himself noted, following World War II, that the
Evian Conference could have resulted in an “outstanding humanitarian achievement” had
not the American Government “permitted the committee to become a nullity.” 113 Cordell
Hull, with convenient hindsight, forgot the terms of the invitation which placed
108 Ibid., 97.
109 Ibid., 97.
110 Gerald Gross, “Yes, But Attitude Perils Progress at World Refugee Conference,” Washington Post,
July 10, 1938, B7.
111 Daily Herald, August 26, 1938 cited in Scharf, British Press, 171.
112 James G. McDonald to Ben Cohen, November 30, 1944, McDonald MSS cited in Leonard
Dinnerstein, America and the Survivors of the Holocaust (NY: Columbia University Press, 1982), 4.
113 Sumner Welles, Where Are We Headed? (NY, Harper and Brothers, 1946) cited in David S. Wyman,
Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis 1938-1941(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,
1968), 51.
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