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

the receiving countries” but it was anticipated that their efforts would prove to be
unsuccessful. 123
Golda (Myerson) Meir, an unofficial Jewish observer of the meeting for the
Histadrut labor union, was not allowed to address the delegates and regarded the event
as a “terrible experience” as delegate after delegate rose to express sympathy while
offering reasons why their respective governments could not aid the refugees. She did
not believe that “anyone who didn’t live through it can understand what I felt at Evian—a
mixture of sorrow, rage, frustration and horror.” Meir wanted to chastise the
representatives: “Don’t you know these so-called numbers are human beings” who were
destined to become prisoners of concentration camps or condemned to wander the “world
like lepers” unless rescue was provided. 124 Perhaps more importantly she concluded that
even “a world which was not…anti-Semitic” could tolerate a situation in which Jewry
was “victimized.” 125 Norman Bentwich commented that the convocation of the Evian
Conference aroused “exaggerated hope” but its accomplishments resulted in
“exaggerated disappointment.” 126
Pincus Rutenberg warned James MacDonald that the failure of the Evian
Conference to achieve meaningful results, coupled with the growing Jewish Question
within Eastern Europe, Italy and Czechoslovakia, proved that Palestine represented the
123 “Help for the Refugees: Proposals at Evian,” The Times, July 7, 1938, 16.
124 Golda Meir, My Life (NY: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1975), 127, 158; Born Golda Mabovitch (May 3,
1898-December 8, 1978) and known as Golda Meyerson from 1917-1956, she later served as the fourth
Prime Minister of Israel.
125 Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Special People (NY: Ballantine, 1977), 10.
126 Norman Bentwich, “The Destruction of the Jewish Community, 1938-1942,”cited in Josef Frankel,
The Jews of Austria, 430.
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