Memorandum of the World Jewish Congress to the Evian Conference
Memorandum of the World Jewish Congress to the Evian Conference
Source : Central Zionist Archive, Jerusalem, S7/693. World Jewish Congress Executive Committee New-York, Geneva, Paris.
Memorandum of the World Jewish Congress Submitted to Delegates to the Evian Conference.
The World Jewish Congress which represents Jewish communities and organisations in 33 countries ΓÇô including the majority of Jewish organisations in east European countries ΓÇô deems it its duty to expound to the Evian Conference the views of the Jewish groups which it represent with regard to the problems which the conference is called upon to consider. The World Jewish Congress is aware that the Evian Conference is not solely concerned with the Jewish but with the more general problem of assisting political refugees. As, however, the majority of victims of political persecution in certain countries belong to the Jewish community, we are convinced that the problem of Jewish refugees shall stand in the centre of the Conference's deliberations.
I. In the name of millions of Jews, the World Jewish Congress wishes to thank the President and the Government of the United States for convening the conference. In the early days of anti-Jewish persecutions, which followed the advent of the National-Socialist regime, several European States have offered generous hospitality to a large number of Jewish refugees from Germany. This, however, is far from having solved the Jewish refugee problem, such as it has developed during the last few years. Hence the historical importance of the Evian Conference which is the first attempt to evolve a constructive and all-inclusive solution of the refugee problem. The Conference is the only hope of hundreds of thousands Jews who are today barbarously persecuted and evicted from positions which they had held for centuries…
II. …While during the first years of the National Socialist regime, Jewish citizens of the Reich, although deprived of their rights, still had certain possibilities of leaving the country and lawfully taking away part of their property, today German authorities resort to arrests which run in thousands, and other arbitrary cruelties designed to terrorise German Jews, whom special fiscal provisions and expropriations deprive of any possibility of taking abroad the least fraction of their property. Germany is endeavouring to compel them to leave the country in a state of complete destitution. The Conference of Evian should fail to its duty if it did not raise a firm protest against this shocking system, which tramples under foot the fundamental principles of justice and humanity…. We beg to entreat the Conference to do everything in its power to bring the German Government to modify their methods…. If it is not achieved, it will hardly be possible to organise a large-scale emigration of the Jews from Germany, however eager and self-sacrificing the co-operation of the private organisations…since the task to be tackled will be nothing less than to find new homes for at least 2 or 300,000 Jews from Germany and Austria within the next few years.
III. It is desirable that the Evian Conference should not confine itself to consider the case of German Jews, which, although the most painful, is but one of the aspects of the refugee problem. Following the nefarious example set by Germany, several European states have, for some time, been enacting legal and administrative measures designed to evict Jewish population from employment and professions, to deprive of their nationality and to force them to emigrate… According to its terms of reference, the Evian Conference is to deal solely with the refugee problem; it must nevertheless be pointed out that an acute Jewish refugee problem is developing in a number of east European states…. In examining the possibilities of opening up new immigration territories for Jewish refugees, it should be taken into account that the most productive form of immigration would be land settlement in hitherto uncultivated areas….While it is true that this form of immigration is a slow and costly one…it must be admitted that, in the long run, it yields the best results….
IV. The Jewish refugee problem cannot be discussed without taking into account the immense possibilities of Palestine as an outlet for Jewish immigration….It should be noted that best experts on Jewish economy in Palestine agree that, provided normal conditions are restored and possibilities are afforded for undisturbed Jewish activity in Palestine, the country may be expected to absorb in the coming years an annual immigration quota of 60,000 to 100,000 people….It is up to the conference to do everything to move the Mandatory Power to restore normal conditions….and to fulfil its pledge to found a Jewish national home in Palestine…
V. The Jewish people is unable to solve its refugee problem single-handed. They need political and financial help of non-Jews in organising and financing a vast migration movement….Only through international funding, and in first place through an international loan may it prove possible to mobilise the funds necessary to build up a Jewish National Home in Palestine and organise soundly a large-scale Jewish emigration to overseas countries….
