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

anti-Semitic undercurrents may have led him to avoid explicit references to Jews. During
the 998 press conferences held over the course of his multiple terms in office FDR failed
to deliver the “appeal to the German people” that he had earlier promised to McDonald in
1933. 52 Henry Feingold has argued that Roosevelt’s decision to call for the Evian
Conference was puzzling as the Administration was “virtually powerless to act” in view
of the restrictions placed on immigration then in effect and the possibility of further
limitations being enacted by Congress. In addition, FDR had appeared “content” to place
the refugee issue solely under the purview of the State Department. He sought to “remain
above” any political discord generated by the immigration problem while “occasionally
[making] an inquiry or a suggestion.” Thus, Foggy Bottom would absorb “much of the
pressure and ire” that would and should have aimed directly at the President. Utilizing
such a strategy Roosevelt was able to preserve his “benevolent image” especially among
Jewish Americans. 53
New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman called upon FDR to alter immigration
policies during 1936 but Roosevelt replied that officials of the State Department and its
Consulates abroad were doing everything in their power to “carry out the immigration
duties placed upon them in a considerate and humane manner.” 54 Although the President
directed the American Consular Service to interpret the LPC clause as liberally as
possible Immigration and Naturalization officials were instructed to consider such
52 Medoff, Blowing the Whistle, 5-6.
53 Feingold, Politics of Rescue, 18, 75.
54 FDR to Herbert Lehman, July 2, 1936 cited in Edgar B. Nixon, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign
Affairs, vol. III: September 1935-January 1937 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969), 342.
327