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

only place of refuge for displaced Jews. It might be necessary to “sacrifice the old[er]
generation” in order to rescue the “still remaining two to three million of young…and
they can be brought only to Palestine.” 127
Some observers did view the Evian Conference in a positive light. One Times
correspondent concluded that the meeting had “done its work admirably” creating
“machinery” that would convert disorderly migration into an methodical process
provided the German Government would demonstrate liberality in the release of blocked
Reichsmarks. The writer also optimistically believed that each delegation “held out the
prospect” of relaxing their respective immigration laws allowing the entry and
resettlement of two hundred thousand forced émigrés. 128
The Evian Conference
represented a “bulwark against despair” for “800,000 to 1,000,000” Austrians and
Germans endangered by German policies It offered hope to the “potential migrants and
political refugees” facing displacement in Eastern Europe, Spain, Italy, the Soviet Union
and the Near East. 129 Although the human tragedy that was playing out within Central
Europe and other regions reflected the “moral deterioration of an era” the Evian
Conference “projected a swift gleam on light across a desolate continent.” The
establishment of the IGCR, with the support and leadership of the American Government,
symbolized hope as it represented the “first organizational united front of the
democracies.” Success, however, in the long-term required German agreement to allow
127 Minutes of Pincus Rutenberg and Ramsay MacDonald conversations, October 5, 1938, Robert Szold
Papers, Box 25, File 16, Zionist Archives, New York in Druks, The Uncertain Friendship, 26. Rutenberg
was a Russian who had served in the Tsarist army and later was Chief of Police in the Kerensky
Government.
128 The Times, July 16, 1938, 13.
129 Foreign Policy Bulletin, 37, July 22, 1938, 1-2.
288