Évian Conference

The Evian Conference was convened at the initiative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in July, 1938 to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees. For nine days, from July 6 to July 15, delegates from thirty-two countries met at Évian-les-Bains, France. Twenty-four voluntary organizations also attended, as observers, many of whom presented plans orally and in writing. The fact that the conference did not pass a resolution condemning the German treatment of Jews was widely used in Nazi propaganda. The lack of action further emboldened Hitler in his assault on European Jewry.

Background

By 1938, some 150,000 out of about 500,000 German Jews managed to flee Germany, and the territories of Europe recently conquered by the Nazis also had sizeable Jewish populations. Jewish refugees were unable to find countries willing to let them immigrate.

Before the Conference, the United States and Great Britain made an agreement: the British promised not to bring up the fact that the U.S. was not filling its immigration quotas, and the Americans refrained from mentioning Palestine as a possible destination for the refugees.

Proceedings

In the course of the conference, the delegates expressed sympathy for the refugees, but offered only excuses for not letting in more refugees.

No high-level official was sent by the U.S. Instead, American businessman Myron C. Taylor, a friend of Roosevelt, represented the U.S. at the conference and stated that the American contribution was to make the German and Austrian immigration quota fully available. The Australian delegate noted: "as we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one." The French delegate stated that France had reached "the extreme point of saturation as regards admission of refugees", a sentiment repeated by most other representatives. The only country willing to accept many Jews was the Dominican Republic but the offer lacked specificity.

In her autobiography My Life (1975), Golda Meir described her outrage being in "the ludicrous capacity of the [Jewish] observer from Palestine, not even seated with the delegates, although the refugees under discussion were my own people..." After the conference, Meir told the press: "There is only one thing I hope to see before I die and that is that my people should not need expressions of sympathy anymore." Chaim Weizmann was quoted in The Manchester Guardian as saying: "The world seemed to be divided into two parts – those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."

Aftermath

Noting "that the involuntary emigration of people in large numbers has become so great that it renders racial and religious problems more acute, increases international unrest, and may hinder seriously the processes of appeasement in international relations", the Evian Conference established the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (ICR) with the purpose to "approach the governments of the countries of refuge with a view to developing opportunities for permanent settlement." The ICR received little authority or support from its member nations and fell off into inaction.

Who was present at the Conference

National delegations

Country	Delegation
Argentina	Dr Tomas A. Le Breton, Ambassador in France Carlos A. Pardo, Secretary-General of the Permanent Delegation to the League of Nations
Australia	Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas W. White, DFC, VD, MP, Minister for Trade and Customs Alfred Thorpe Stirling, Australian liaison officer in the Foreign Office, London A. W. Stuart-Smith, Australia House, London
Belgium	Robert de Foy, Chief of the Belgian State Security Service J. Schneider, Director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade
Bolivia	Simón Iturri Patiño, Minister in France, the Bolivian "Tin King" Adolfo Costa du Rels, Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations
Brazil	Hélio Lobo, Minister first class, Member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters Expert: Jorge Olinto de Oliveira, Permanent Delegate, First Secretary of the Brazilian Legation
Canada	Humphrey Hume Wrong, Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations Expert: W. R. Little, Commissioner for European Emigration in London
Chile	Fernando García Oldini, Minister in Switzerland and Representative at the International Labour Organization, with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
Colombia	Luis Cano, Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations, with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Prof. J. M. Yepes, Legal Adviser to the Permanent Delegation to the League of Nations, with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Abelardo Forero Benavides, Secretary to the Permanent Delegation to the League of Nations
Costa Rica	Prof. Luís Dobles Segreda, Chargé d'Affaires in Paris
Cuba	Dr. Juan Antiga Escobar, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Switzerland, permanent Delegate to the League of Nations
Denmark	Gustav Rasmussen, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Troels Hoff, of the Ministry of Justice
Dominican Republic	Virgilio Trujillo Molina, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in France and Belgium, brother of the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Dr. Salvador E. Paradas, Chargé d'Affaires, representing the Permanent Delegation to the League of Nations
Ecuador	Alejandro Gastelu Concha, Secretary of the Permanent Delegation to the League of Nations, Consul-General in Geneva
France	Victor Henry Bérenger, Ambassador Bressy, Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Director of the International Unions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Combes, Director in the Ministry of the Interior Georges Coulon, of the Foreign Ministry Fourcade, Head of Department in the Ministry of the Interior François Seydoux, official of the Bureau for European Affairs in the Foreign Ministry Baron Brincard, official of the Bureau for League of Nations Affairs in the Foreign Ministry
Guatemala	José Gregorio Diaz, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in France
Haiti	Léon R. Thébaud, Commercial Attaché in Paris, with the rank of Minister
Honduras	Mauricio Rosal, Consul in Paris, with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
Republic of Ireland	Francis Thomas Cremins, Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations John Duff, Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Justice William Maguire, Second Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce
Mexico	Primo Villa Michel, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in the Netherlands Manuel Tello Barraud, Chargé d'Affaires representing the Permanent Delegation to the League of Nations
Netherlands	W. C. Beucker Andreae, Head of the Legal Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs R. A. Verwey, Director of the State Insurance Office for the Unemployed in the Ministry of Social Welfare I. P. Hooykaas, Adviser in the Ministry of Justice
New Zealand	C. B. Burdekin, OBE, from the New Zealand High Commissioner’s Office in London
Nicaragua	Constantino Herdocia, minister in Great Britain and France, with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
Norway	Michael Hansson, President of the Nansen International Office for Refugees, which received the Nobel Peace Prize later the same year C. N. S. Platou, Director-General in the Ministry of Justice Finn Moe, journalist, representative of the private organizations for refugees in Morway Adviser: R. Konstad, Director of the Norwegian Central Passport Office
Panama	Dr. Ernesto Hoffmann, Consul-General in Geneva and Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations, with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
Paraguay	Gustavo A. Wiengreen, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Hungary
Peru	Francisco García Calderón Rey, Minister in France, with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
Sweden	Gösta Engzell, Head of the Legal Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs C. A. M. de Hallenborg, Head of Section in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary of the Delegation E. G. Drougge, Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance
Switzerland	Dr. Heinrich Rothmund, Head of the Police Division of the Federal Department of Justice and Police Henri Werner, Lawyer, Police Division of the Federal Department of Justice and Police
United Kingdom	Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton, MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Sir Charles Michael Palairet, KCMG, Minister Plenipotentiary Advisers: Sir John Shuckburgh, KCMG, CB, Under-Secretary of State at the Colonial Office J. G. Hibbert, MC, Director at the Colonial Office E. N. Cooper, OBE, Director at the Home Office R. M. Makins, Assistant Adviser on League of Nations Questions in the Foreign Office, secretary of the delegation Secretaries to Earl Winterton: Captain Victor Cazalet, MP T. B. Williamson, Home Office
United States	Myron Charles Taylor, Ambassador on Special Mission Adviser: James Grover McDonald, President of the "President Roosevelt Consultive Committee for Political Refugees" Technical Advisers: Robert T. Pell, Division of European Affairs, State Department George L. Brandt, formerly head of the Visa Division in the State Department Secretary of the Delegation: Hayward G. Hill, Consul in Geneva Assistant to James McDonald: George L. Warren, Executive Secretary of the "President Roosevelt Consultive Committee for Political Refugees"
Uruguay	Dr. Alfredo Carbonell Debali, Delegate Plenipotentiary
Venezuela	Carlos Aristimuño Coll, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in France

Other participants in the Conference

Organization	Representatives
High Commission for Refugees from Germany	Sir Neill Malcolm, KCB, DSO Frederick Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, secretary to Sir Neill Malcolm Tevfik Erim, member of the Political Section of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, father of Kenan Erim
General Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Committee	Jean Paul-Boncour, Secretary-General Gabrielle Boisseau, Assistant to the Secretary-General J. Herbert, interpreter Edward Archibald Lloyd, interpreter Louis Constant E. Muller, translator William David McAfee, translator Mézières, treasurer

Private organizations represented at the Conference

• Agudas Israel World Organization, London
• Alliance Israélite Universelle, Paris
• American,British, Belgian, French, Dutch, and Swiss Catholic Committees for Aid to Refugees
• American Joint Distribution Committee, Paris
• Association de colonisation juive, Paris
• Association of German Scholars in Distress Abroad, London
• Bureau international pour le respect du droit d'asyle et l'aide aux réfugiés politiques, Paris
• Central Bureau for the Settlement of German Jews, London
• Central Committee for Refugees from Germany, Prague
• Centre de recherches de solutions au problème juif, Paris
• Comité d'aide et d'assistance aux victimes de l'anti-semitisme en Allemagne, Brussels
• Comite for Bijzondere Joodsche Belangen, Amsterdam
• Comité international pour le placement des intellectuels réfugiés, Geneva
• Comité pour la défense des droits des Israélites en Europe centrale et orientale, Paris
• Committee of Aid for German Jews, London
• Council for German Jewry, London
• Emigration Advisory Committee, London
• Fédération des émigrés d'Autriche, Paris
• Fédération internationale des émigrés d'Allemagne, Paris
• Freeland Association, London
• German Committee of the Quaker Society of Friends, London
• HICEM, Paris
• International Christian Committee for Non-Aryans, London
• Internationale ouvrière et socialiste, Paris and Brussels
• Jewish Agency for Palestine, London
• The Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association, London
• Komitee für die Entwicklung der grossen jüdischen Kolonisation, Zürich
• League of Nations Union, London
• New Zionist Organization, London
• ORT, Paris
• Royal Institute of International Affairs, London
• Schweizer Hilfszentrum für Flüchtlinge, Basel
• Service international de migration, Geneva
• Service universitaire international, Geneva
• Société d'émigration et de colonisation juive Emcol, Paris
• Society for the Protection of Sciences and Studies, London
• Union des Sociétés OSE, Paris
• World Jewish Congress, Paris

The Press

The international press was represented by about two hundred journalists, chiefly the League of Nations correspondents of the leading daily and weekly newspapers and news agencies. This is an uncomplete list of the papers and agencies, and their reporters.

Aftenbladet, Oslo Algemeen Handelsblad Berlingske Tidende, Copenhagen Chicago Daily News - Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker Chicago Tribune Corriere della Sera, Milan Daily Express, London Daily Herald, London The Daily Telegraph, London - Noel Panter La Dernière Heure, Brussels Gazette de Lausanne Journal de Genève Journal des Nations, Geneva Lidové Noviny, Brno - Bohuš Beneš, nephew of Edvard Beneš Magyar Távirati Iroda, Budapest The Manchester Guardian - Robert Edward Dell

Neue Zürcher Zeitung News Chronicle - Vernon Bartlett New York Herald Tribune The New York Times - Clarence Streit Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant L'Osservatore Romano, Vatican Prager Presse Prager Tagblatt - Hans Habe La Prensa, Buenos Aires Reuters, London La Stampa, Turin De Telegraaf, The Hague Le Temps, Paris The Times, London Tribune de Genève Ujság, Budapest Völkischer Beobachter, Munich

See also

• Kristallnacht (November 9 1938)
• The Holocaust
• Bermuda Conference
• British Mandate of Palestine
• White Paper of 1939
• SS St. Louis
• International response to the Holocaust

External links

• Decisions Taken at the Évian Conference
• The Évian Conference at Yad Vashem
• What was The Évian Conference?
• The Évian Conference - Hitler's Green Light for Genocide