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

advisement” while Taylor promised but never scheduled an appointment. 119
He did have
a discussion with Lord Winterton regarding the situation of Jews in Vienna and
afterwards informed the press that he was “morally sure” that if havens were found for a
significant number of Jews then the German Government would allow the migrants to
retain twenty percent of their assets. 120
The doctor was not allowed to testify before the
White sub-committee and remarked that his personal position was extremely precarious
as he must return to Germany “with a definite number to be evacuated, not promises of
investigation by commissions, committees or officers.” 121 Neumann reportedly had
informed Taylor that he had been instructed by the Nazis to relay the warning that if a
ransom plan was not agreed upon forty thousand Austrian Jews would be sent to
concentration camps. Taylor, according to one investigator, established a sub-committee
to investigate the proposal, chaired by the Columbian delegate, which failed to achieve
any concrete results. The role of Neumann, if any, remains unclear and controversial
although reports of his efforts were reported in the New York Times of July 7-9 and the
London Daily Express on July 12. 122
The Times considered it “noteworthy” that
Neumann and Loewenherz were in attendance at the Conference and it appeared that they
were “authorized to obtain specific proposals for a more widely open door on the part of
119 “Taylor Made Head of Refugee Parley,” New York Times, July 8, 1938, 7.
120 Charles K. Streit, “Catholics Appeal to Refugee Parley,” New York Times July 9, 1938, 1.
121 “Taylor Made Head of Refugee Parley,” New York Times, July 8, 1938, 7.
122 Yehuda Bauer, Jews for Sale?: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations 1933-1945 (New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1994), 32.
286