Evian Conference

A detailed Summary of Evian Conference

The Evian Conference was called by President Roosevelt in 1938. The purpose of the conference was to fix the refugee problem and save Jewish lives. This did not occur, because of many contributing factors. Many questions arose surrounding this failure, from how each nation reacted, to whether or not anti-Semitism was present, affecting the outcome of negotiations. But what is possibly the hardest to answer was what Roosevelt's true intentions were? Was he truly acting to help the Jews, or portraying so for reputation purposes?

In March of 1938, President Roosevelt decided to call an international conference on the refugee crisis. This came as a shock to many, as the employment rate was at an all time low and the amount of restrictionists in Congress was at an all time high. Restrictionists would surely challenge the idea, as they were for immigration laws the way they were. It seemed ridiculous to think that anything could get done at the conference, unless immigration laws were modified so that a distinction between refugees and immigrants could be drawn. Other foreign countries weren't any more enthusiastic about things.

The League of Nations was having it's own struggles with the refugee problem. In addition, count

Response to the invitations to the Evian Conference were pouring into the State Department. The major powers were apprehensive. Great Britain demanded that the Palestine issue not be brought up at the conference. France asked for a preliminary meeting with Britain and the United States, so that they could be sure their views were unified. The Latin-American Republics expressed a reluctance to accept more refugees. Both Poland and Rumania requested invitations, but were rejected because they were not nations that could potentially accept refugees. Instead, Poland, Rumania, and South Africa sent observers to the conference. A major oversight was not inviting Portugal, which is in possession of Angola, a key hope in the plan for relocation of refugees. Ireland attended the conference even though initially they were not invited. Italy was the only country to outright refuse to attend the conference. A problem arose when Switzerland, where the conference was scheduled to take place, requested that another country be chosen for the conference, feeling a strong loyalty to the League agencies on refugees, and out of fear of antagonizing Berlin. Germany was not invited. It was thought that it would be better not to have the "enemy", in question present at the discussions. Hitler responded to this in a campaign speech he gave in Konigsberg. He joked about willingly letting the Jews leave "even on luxury ships," but he would not budge on laws of transfer of capital and property.

An examination of the possibilities for mass resettlement of refugees.

But no such luck came about. Germany was unsatisfied with the conference, believing that it was for them to take responsibility for resettling the Jews. Berlin flat out refused to take place in negotiations. This did not stop IGC from having a meeting in London anyway, to finish the work started in Evian. The turn out hampered the goals of the meeting. Only twenty-seven of the original thirty-two members of the IGC sent a delegate, and even then it was usually head of a trade mission who didn't know much about Evian. France was unwilling to send anyone at first, and Brazil never did. The conference never got off the ground, as it seemed the Roosevelt refugee-rescue initiative had reached a dead-end.

A confidential system to allow each nation at the conference to report on the number of refugees it was prepared to admit under its immigration regulations.

Plans for a new system of furnishing stateless refugees with legal documents to replace the Nansen passport.

While the "Night of the Broken Glass", alerted the public to the plight of German Jews, it forced German Jews to think about emigration, even though they were now powerless to act on such a feeling. Chances for doing so hadn't improved. Latin America and Britain all stood firm on their refusals. Ideas to bring Jews to former German colonies like Africa were shot down by Zionists who wanted no further dealing with Germany. German Jewry was left penniless and with no place to go.

Plans for immediate aid to the most urgent cases.

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Category: History