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

columnists as Dorothy Thompson and “certain Congressmen with metropolitan
constituencies” and attempt to “guide the pressure [to increase Jewish immigration], to
seize the [diplomatic and political] initiative before pressure built and to spread
responsibility among the thirty two nations [which attended the conference] instead of
us.” He was also concerned about a potential backlash from restrictionist forces opposed
to any alteration in the immigration laws; a concern that was reflected in the terms of the
Evian invitation. 81 Welles may have been further motivated by humanitarian concerns
after receiving a letter from Samuel Rosenman, the Jewish speechwriter of FDR, who
was seeking aid for some German-Jewish friends. Welles expressed to a State
Department subordinate, George Messersmith, on March 12, 1938, that it was “shocking”
that immigration restrictions limited the granting of entry visas to German Jewish
refugees “solely because under present German law they have been convicted of
Rassenschande [racial shame]. We should…correct this injustice.” 82 Messersmith
observed in a memorandum sent to Hull and Welles that “in spite of the difficulties
involved in doing anything constructive” for involuntary refugees the potential for
positive action remained “good.” Mass resettlement could only be accomplished over a
prolonged period of time and would require the “cooperative action” of a host of
81 National Archives 840.48 Division of European Affairs, Memorandum on Refugee Problems,
attached to the Division of American Republics, memo of November 18, 1938 cited in Irving Abella and
Harold Troper, None Is Too Many (NY: Random House, 1983), 16. Welles was the official of the State
Department closest to FDR. Dwork and Jan Pelt suggested Roosevelt was the initiator of the Evian
Conference and that Dorothy Thompsons’ article had “pricked the conscience” of the President who, soon
after reading a preliminary version of Thompson’s article, publically announced his plan to call for an
international refugee conference. Dwork and Jan Pelt, Flight from the Reich, 98.
82 Memo from Sumner Welles to George Messersmith, March 12, 1938, Sumner Welles Papers in
Benjamin Welles, Sumner Welles: FDR’s Global Strategist A Biography (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1977),
220.
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