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

Vluchtelingen), claimed that the organization had prevented the admission of more Jews
into Holland than the entire “police and Government put together” by advising their
“contacts” within the Reich “as we still do today” that the “flood of refugees” into the
country must be prevented. 58
Edouard Daladier assumed the mantle of French Prime Minister again on April
10, 1938 marking the rise to power of a center-right political coalition that would
disavow the liberal immigration policies of the Popular Front under Léon Blum. A
Decree of May 2 legally differentiated between prior groups of political refugees and the
new wave of forced émigrés. Russians and Armenians who had entered France during
the 1920s were granted permanent residence but Spanish, German and other more recent
entrants were obligated to apply for increasingly more restricted temporary residency
permits. In addition, security forces on the frontiers were allocated greater authority to
block the entry of refugees. 59
Daladier advised Justin Godart, president of the
Committee for the Defense of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe, that “humane
suggestions might be entertained” regarding Spanish and German refugees in France but
temporary or permanent havens could not be assured due to the potential threat of conflict
with neighboring Fascist countries. 60
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain addressed the House of Commons on
March 14, 1938 and noted that both England and Germany were signatories to treaties
58 Eitje to G. van den Bergh, March 23, 1938, Archives of the Jewish Relief Committee, file 5 in
Michman, “The Committee,” 219.
59 Timothy P. Maga, “Closing the Door: The French Government and Refugee Policy, 1933-1939,”
French Historical Studies 12, no. 3 (Spring 1982): 435.
60 Daladier to Godart and Godart to Myron C. Taylor, May 24, 1938, Box 9 of the Papers of Myron C.
Taylor, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, NY cited in Maga, “Closing the Door,” 436.
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