Before adjourning, the Evian Conference established the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR) and commissioned it to 'approach the governments of the countries of refuge with a view to developing opportunities for permanent settlement,' and to persuade Germany to co-operate in establishing 'conditions of orderly emigration.' The IGCR, however, received little authority and almost no funds or support from its member nations, and it had virtually no success in opening countries to refugees. The first director of the IGCR was George Rublee, an American lawyer, who opened negotiations with Hjalmar Schacht, the President of the German Central Bank in December 1938. After Schacht was removed from his post, the negotiations went on with Helmut Wohltat of the Ministry of Economy. As a result of the negotiations they called for the creation of a fund, to be guaranteed by the Jewish property in Germany, and a Co-ordinating Foundation in order to finance the emigration of 400,000 Jews from Germany. The attempts of the IGCR to find havens for German Jews in different countries failed. The advent of war cut short its efforts and the committee soon slipped into inactivity.
