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

immigration and any further admittance of refugees would result in a “rupture to the
equilibrium of her social body…The absorptive capabilities of every people has a limit.
This limit has long been exceeded in France. She said so at Evian; she repeats it in
London.” 14
Two years prior to the accession of Hitler to power the Weimar Government
enacted an emigration tax in an attempt to limit removal of foreign currency. In 1933
emigrants from Germany retained seventy five percent of the value of their assets. This
percentage was later decreased to fifteen percent and by 1938 it was reduced to five
percent; a policy that severely impacted on the willingness of potential receiving nations
to accept penniless refugees. German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop warned
that the refugee problem was an “internal German problem that was not subject to
discussion.” The release of adequate amounts of Jewish monies “could not be expected
of Germany” and any cooperation with the Evian conferees “was out of the question for
Germany.” Permanent Foreign Secretary Baron Ernst von Weizsäcker informed
Ribbentrop that both the American and British Ambassadors were seeking a meeting of
George Rublee with German officials. Such an appointment was necessary if the IGCR
was to “prove its worth.” Germany would undoubtedly be requested to released
increased amounts of foreign currency and personal assets; an action that “for obvious
reasons” the Reich cannot provide. Such a refusal on the German side would provide an
opportunity for adverse Western propaganda, namely, that it was “German obstinacy”
14 “Au Comité Intergouvernemental des réfugiés,” Le Temps, August 4, 1938, 5 cited in Caron, Uneasy
Asylum, 186.
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