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

escue of Jews was a low priority on the global and American scene. As will be
demonstrated in a future monograph the outcomes of the Wagner-Rogers bill of 1939 and
the Hennings Bill of 1940 placed greater value on the lives of some children compared to
others.
Although Myron C. Taylor asserted that forced migration was creating
“catastrophic human suffering” that threatened “general unrest,” the true sentiments or
apathy of many towards the Nazi persecution of Jewish and non-Aryan minorities could,
perhaps, be best expressed in the recollections of René Richier, the Chief Concierge of
the Hotel Royal, site of the conference in Evian:
Very important people were here and all the delegates had a nice time.
They took pleasure cruises on the lake. They gambled at night at the
casino. They took mineral baths and massages at the Etablissement
Thermal. Some of them took the excursion to Chamonix to go summer
skiing. Some went riding: we have, you know, one of the finest stables
in France. But, of course, it is difficult to sit indoors hearing speeches
when all the pleasures that Evian offers are outside." 13
Eventually the echoes of the ill-fated Evian Conference struck a positive but
limited chord in international relations and humanitarianism as reflected in the comments
of Vice President Walter Mondale when the United States was seeking a solution to the
problem of the boat people of Southeast Asia fleeing Communist rule. Mondale stated:
Some tragedies defy the imagination. Some misery so surpasses the
grasp of reason that language itself breaks beneath the strain. Instead,
we grasp for metaphors. Instead, we speak the inaudible dialect of the
human heart.
Today we confront such a tragedy. In virtually all the world’s
languages, desperate new expressions have been born. “A barbed-wire
bondage,” “an archipelago of despair,” “a flood tide of human
misery”…
13 “Text of Taylor’s Address at Refuge Parley,” New York Times, July 7, 1938, 9; Peggy Mann, “When
the World Passed by on the Other Side,’ Manchester Guardian Weekly, May 7, 1978, interview with René
Richier.
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