- Headline
-
U. S. Lodges Protest with Nazi Germany
- Sub-Headline
- Objects to Seizure of Property of Foreign Jewish People
- Publication Date
- Thursday, May 12, 1938
- Historical Event
-
Evian Conference Offers Neither Help, Nor Haven
This database includes 1,235 articles about this event - Tags
- Article Type
- Location
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- UP
- Article Text
- WASHINGTON, May 11. (UP)—The state department tonight disclosed that Hugh R. Wilson, American ambassador to Berlin, had lodged a vigorous protest with the German government against the Nazi decree expropriating property of all Jews regardless whether they are German or foreign Jews.
Wilson filed the protest on May 9. It stated bluntly and emphatically that the American government would consider application of the decree to American Jews a violation of the "rights accorded American citizens under treaty of friendship, so commerce and consular rights between the United States and Germany, signed Dec. 8. 1923."
A few hours later the state department announced that a conference of more than 30 nations will be held in Evians, France, July 6, to form an inter-governmental committee to study repatriation of political refugees from Germany and Austria.
The offer sanctuary to politically oppressed people was proposed by President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull in March, and invitations were sent to nine European powers, three British dominions and all Latin-American republics. Of this group, only Italy refused to cooperate.
At the Evians conference, delegates from the various participating nations will form an international committee to study the problem of providing permanent havens for the refugees and suggest possible lines of action, the department said.
Roosevelt Proposes Sanctuary
The action followed by only a few weeks President Roosevelt's proposal to nine European nations and all the Latin-American nations that they join the United States in offering sanctuary to political refugees from Germany and Austria.
The protest, characterizing the Nazi decree as "discriminatory." said the United States felt that the German government upon further consideration "will give early assurances that the measure will not be applied to American citizens."
The text of the note, one of the most vigorous presented to a foreign government since the sinking of the U. S. S. Panay by Japanese warplanes last December, follows:
"On April 26, 1938, a decree was issued by the German government and supplemented by instructions under which all Jews and their spouses, whether German or foreign nationals, are called upon to declare, subject to certain small exceptions, all property held in Germany, while such declarations are not required from Germans generally nor from other foreigners. It appears further that the commissioner for the (Nazi) four-year plan is authorized to use the fortunes so declared 'In harmony with the requirements of German economy.'
"The government of the United States considers that the application of measures of the nature indicated
—(Please Turn To Page Two) - History Unfolded Contributor
- Charlene Y.
- 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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- 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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