- Headline
-
America Warns of Forcing of Migration of Refugees
- Sub-Headline
- Conference Opens Today on Problem of What To Do With Minority Groups
- Publication Date
- Wednesday, July 6, 1938
- Historical Event
-
Evian Conference Offers Neither Help, Nor Haven
This database includes 1,227 articles about this event - Tags
- Article Type
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- AP
- Image Text
- EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France, July 6 (AP)—Myron C. Taylor, head of the United States delegation, gave a blunt warning to the thirty-two-nation[sic] conference on refugees today that forced migration of political and racial groups can bring "catastrophic suffering" upon the world.
NAMES GERMANY
Addressing the opening session of the meeting, result of President Roosevelt's invitation to other nations to discuss the refugee problem, Taylor said "general unrest and International strain" were unavoidable results of this migration.
He named only one country—Germany.
"I need not emphasize that discrimination and pressure against minority groups and disregard of elementary human life are contrary to the principles of what we have come to regard as accepted standards of civilization," the former head of the United States Steel Corporation, declared.
He outlined the scope of the conference as to take in all problems dealing with the "great bodies of reluctant migrants who must be absorbed in abnormal circumstances with a disregard of economic conditions and at a time of stress."
FEARS RETALIATION
This wave of migration, he said caustically, is forced upon the world at large and "artificially stimulated by governmental practices in some countries."
Calling forced migration of minorities "chaotic dumping of unfortunate peoples," he declared this a more disturbing practice even than dumping merchandise, the disruptive consequences of which are generally known.
It renders racial and religious problems more acute in all parts of the world, he said, and encourages retailiation[sic] against the responsible countries. "International mistrust and suspicion is heightened," he asserted, "and fear, which is an important obstacle to general appeasement between nations, is accentuated."
He predicted "catastrophic human suffering" unless nations unite to halt this "anarchical" practice "by some governments".
Taylor's address was the principal business of the opening session. The conference was inaugurated by Henry Berenger, chairman of the French senate's committee on foreign affairs, who formally welcomed the delegates.
ITALIAN REFUGEES
The conference received a memorandum from Francesco Nitti, exiled former premier of Italy, asking that the question of Italian refugees be taken up cojointly[sic] with the German and Austrian discussions. An Austrian refugee leader, Artur[sic] Rosenberg, told American delegates he believed seventy-five per cent of Austrians would leave their country if allowed to take a substantial part of their property with them. - History Unfolded Contributor
- Karen B.
- Location of Research
- Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)
Learn More about this Historical Event: Evian Conference Offers Neither Help, Nor Haven
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- The Evian Conference (The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students)
- German Jewish Refugees, 1933–1939 (Encyclopedia Article)
Bibliography
Breitman, Richard and Alan Kraut. American Refugee Policy and European Jewry, 1933–1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Caron, Vicki. Uneasy Asylum: France and the Jewish Refugee Crisis, 1933–1942. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.
Feingold, Henry L. Bearing Witness: How America and Its Jews Responded to the Holocaust. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995.
Feingold, Henry L. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938–1945. New York: Holocaust Library, 1970.
Gurock, Jeffrey S., ed. America, American Jews, and the Holocaust. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Hamerow, Theodor. While We Watched: Europe, America, and the Holocaust. New York: Norton, 2008.
Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1938–1941. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.
Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945. New York: The New Press, 1998.
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