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

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it was the formal discussion <strong>of</strong> altering national immigration quotas at <strong>Evian</strong> that doomed<br />

the conference to failure. 18 Similarly, Gil Loescher alleged that the discussion <strong>of</strong> the<br />

<strong>Jewish</strong> Question at the international level “reflected and subsequently strengthened the<br />

restrictive attitudes and policies” <strong>of</strong> government and the public. 19 Morty Penkower<br />

argued that nations outside <strong>of</strong> the German sphere <strong>of</strong> influence “abdicated [their] moral<br />

responsibility” and became “ac<strong>com</strong>plices” to ultimate genocide. 20 Michael Marrus<br />

believed that most <strong>of</strong> the representatives agreed with the “mean spirited” Canadian<br />

Minister Frederick Blair that a line in the sand had to be drawn against any weakening <strong>of</strong><br />

national immigration restrictions. Such resilience would <strong>com</strong>pel the Reich to “solve their<br />

<strong>Jewish</strong> question internally.” 21<br />

Jonathan D. Sarna portrayed the Roosevelt initiative as a “politics <strong>of</strong> gestures”<br />

introduced with an invitation that was designed to be “carefully hedged.” <strong>The</strong> overt<br />

refusal <strong>of</strong> the United States to expand its immigration allowance for Germany and<br />

Austria forecast the meeting’s failure. FDR and his Administration’s great interest in<br />

colonization schemes in remote and underdeveloped sites (Philippine Islands, British<br />

Guiana, Alaska, Lower California, Angola, Ethiopia, Australia and the Dominican<br />

Republic) represented a hidden “form <strong>of</strong> group dissolution”; a project that was unlikely to<br />

generate much <strong>Jewish</strong> support or enthusiasm. Such proposals “served as psychological<br />

<strong>com</strong>pensation for the inhospitality <strong>of</strong> the United States” and did receive support from<br />

18 Konnilyn G. Feig, Hitler’s Death Camps: <strong>The</strong> Sanity <strong>of</strong> Madness (NY: Holmes & Meier, 1981), 412.<br />

19 Gil Loescher, <strong>The</strong> UNHCR, 32.<br />

20 Monty Noam Penkower, <strong>The</strong> Jews Were Expendable: Free World Diplomacy and the Holocaust<br />

(Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1988), vii.<br />

21 Michael Marrus, <strong>The</strong> Unwanted, 172.<br />

317

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