Memorandum of the Jewish Agency, Palestine, to the Evian Conference
Memorandum of the Jewish Agency, Palestine, to the Evian Conference
Source : The Central Zionist Archive, S7/693
The Jewish Agency for Palestine Memorandum Submitted to the Inter-Governmental Conference on Refugees 6th July 1938
The Balfour Declaration and the Mandate for Palestine have given international recognition to the right of the Jewish people to reconstitute their National Home in Palestine…Zionism has never considered enforced Jewish emigration as a legitimate means for countries to rid themselves of their Jewish population, or artificially to reduce the numbers of their Jewish population. Emigration is a right of the individual citizen, but not a duty and must be free and not compulsory… In Germany the Jews even in 1933 formed less than 1% of the population and there has never been the same problem of acute economic distress and the competition as in Eastern Europe. But the deliberate policy of the German Government has since 1933 reduced the Jews to economic pauperism, and deprived them of human and civil rights. The treatment of the Jews in Germany and still more in Austria forms the most extreme and most brutal chapter of the Jewish tragedy in Eastern and Central Europe… 5. The Jewish people throughout the world trust that the representatives of the Governments assembled at Evian on the generous initiative of the President of the United States, will emphatically protest against the persecution… which has reached its worst forms in Germany and Austria. It is further hoped that countries which are still able to admit numbers of immigrants without any harm to their own citizens will apply a bolder immigration policy; this would give immediate relief to large number of victims of persecution and would ultimately benefit the countries which receive them… 11. Of the 135,000 Jews who have left Germany since 1933, 42,000 have entered Palestine, and 48,000 other overseas countries. 25,000 have returned to their countries of origin; 20,000 have been admitted to European countries, many of them still without leave to reside permanently or accept employment. …. 15. The question of how many Jewish immigrants Palestine may ultimately be able to absorb cannot be answered now with any degree of certainty, since it depends largely on factors beyond the control of the Jews. But given more or less normal conditions of immigration and economic development, an approximate estimate may be attempted. ….
