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

countries that would be facilitated by the convening of such an international refugee
conference. 83
Roosevelt could adopt the visage of “international humanitarianism” while
avoiding any changes to the annual quota or immigration laws and preserve the political
support of those who opposed the admission of stateless émigrés. 84 Gallup and other polls
from June 1936 to January 1938 demonstrated that approximately sixty five percent of
Americans were against Roosevelt seeking a third term; highlighting the potential
political risks for the President. 85 Preemptive action to curtail forced expulsion, migration
and the limitation of the conference to consideration of German and Austrian refugees
would, it was hoped, prevent the “dumping” of unwanted Jews from Rumania, Poland
and Hungary; countries that were formulating their own anti-Semitic policies. Therefore,
83 Messersmith to Hull March 31, 1938. NARA RG 59 840.8 Refugees/84.5 cited in Orchard, “The
Right to Leave,” 200.
84 Breitman American Refugee Policy, 230.The Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 established the
annual immigration quota system. The Act, suffused with racial undertones, aimed to limited entry of
cheap foreign labor that would unfairly compete for employment with American workers. Aliens, once
regarded as necessary elements for the development and exploitation of the American Continent, were now
viewed through a xenophobic nativist prism that feared entry of foreign ideologies that threatened the
democratic system. Roosevelt did receive pleas from local Jewish leaders for aid to Austrian and German
Jews and non-Aryan Christians. Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, president of the Rabbinical Council of
America, called on the President to “sound the note of humanitarianism as the voice of America to the
German Government for justice and mercy to Catholics and Jews…We do not presume to ask you to
involve our beloved country in any political question [but] we believe that the elementary human right to
live unfettered and unchallenged is the concern of all mankind.” The leaders of the European democracies
were “unable to speak in the same disinterested non-partisan manner as you can.” The fate of humanity
depended upon the “compelling voice” of a statesman who would be the recipient of the “unquestioned
confidence and support” of the international community. Only FDR, Goldstein believed, held such
influence and he called upon the White House to be the “instrument through which the Catholics, Jews and
any other oppressed people may be allowed to live without fear of being seized, humiliated and tortured…”
“Roosevelt Urged to Intercede with Germany for Catholics and Jews,” The Sentinel, March 24, 1938, 31.
85 Time, April 11, 1938, 11.
87