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

new domestic programs. Emphasis on increased Jewish immigration could precipitate
greater confrontations and a potential backlash in Congress from anti-immigrationists,
although Roosevelt was not worried about losing Jewish electoral support. 74 John
Stoessinger argued that Roosevelt and his Administration had taken “a determined step”
to aid the Jews of Germany. However, despite the “prodding” of the President and the
Department of State, it was the Congress that was responsible for not liberalizing
American immigration laws that ensured the failure of the Evian Conference. 75 Breitman
and Kraut asserted that “bureaucratic indifference to moral or humanitarian concerns”
was a “more significant obstacle to an active refuge policy” than the anti-Semitic and
anti-immigrant sentiments of Government officials. Contradictory national priorities
coupled with limited latitude of domestic political action prohibited the Administration
from exceeding the restrictions placed on the quota system. The magnitude and the
ability to secure rescue of Jews was quite inadequate, they admit, but they concluded that
“British and American inaction…represented a fundamental failure of western civilized
values.” 76 Joseph C. Harsch claimed that FDR had recognized international political
constraints would prevent the Evian Conference from adopting a program of mass
migration over a short time frame. Rather, he envisaged the creation of a permanent
international organization that would be mandated to accomplish the limited goals that
74 Brecher, Reluctant Ally, 61.
75 Stoessinger, The Refugee, 40. Prior to the onset of WWII Stoessinger and his family fled from Austria
to Czechoslovakia and eventually received a visa from Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara escaping to
Shanghai and Kobe.
76 Breitman and Kraut, American Refugee Policy, 2.
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