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The Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin presents the year 1938 through the eyes of Jews, whose personal documents detail their experiences and the hardships they suffered as well as the growing tensions in Europe and diminishing hope for Jews in Germany and Austria.

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26

SATURDAY

26

The future of humanity and culture

A call to action in bad times

“If ever there was a need for brave hearts, clear minds and strong fists, it is today, as nothing less than the future of humanity and culture is at stake!”

New York

No one reading the November issue of the Aufbau could have missed the front-page editorial message in bold print: under the heading “The Great Trial,” forceful language is employed to decry the abject failure of “the heads of state of the so-called democracies,” who have sacrificed Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. Jewish refugees are left stranded in no man’s land in Bohemia, in Germany, the Nazis are dealing an “economic death blow” to the Jews, the British are jeopardizing the Zionist project, and “little more than a faint memory” remains of the Evian Conference, summoned in July to tackle the problem of resettling Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Surely, this is “an era of complete sinfulness.” Will those under threat finally brace up?

TAGS: commentary, dispossession, economic persecution, Evian conference, Jewish property, Journalism, media coverage, Munich Agreement, New York, November 26, politics, press article, refugees, Sudetenland, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

"Die große Prüfung," Editorial, Aufbau, Vol. 4, No. 12, p. 1

5

MONDAY

5

Helpless League of Nations

550,000 more refugees expected

“Another 550,000 Catholics, Legitimists and ‘non-Aryans,’ will be obliged to leave the Greater Reich.”

Geneva

The League of Nation’s report was alarming. Sir Neill Malcom, the High Commissioner for German Refugees in the League, estimated that 550,000 more people would soon be forced to leave the German Reich. Non-governmental refugee organizations were already completely overwhelmed. What to do? The conference of Evian just two months earlier had failed. Large host countries, such as the United States, had not adjusted their immigration quotas. On September 5th, the JTA reported on Sir Malcom’s proposals – which, in light of the international situation, were themselves inadequate: countries which had not so far given refugees permission to work were encouraged to more strongly cooperate with each other and at least allow people to earn a small sum for a new start in exile.

TAGS: antisemitism, displacement, emigration, Evian conference, Geneva, immigration, Journalism, JTA, League of Nations, media coverage, persecution, politics, prominent people, refugees, September 5

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“550,000 More Must Leave Reich, Malcolm Tells League”

Source available in English

26

FRIDAY

26

Recent arrivals

The Boston Committee for Refugees does what it can

"ISAAC BIRNBAUM, age 53, retail tobacco and clothing merchant. (speaks no English whatever)"

Boston

Of the American-Jewish self-help groups assisting Jews in leaving Europe and rebuilding their lives in the United States, the Boston Committee for Refugees was the first. Established in 1933, it consisted entirely of volunteers. Under the leadership of Walter H. Bieringer and Willy Nordwind, the Committee chiefly endeavored to obtain affidavits for would-be immigrants and see to it that they would find employment upon arrival in the U.S. Since the Great Depression, the State Department had orders to keep people “likely to become a public charge” out. It was of great importance to ensure the livelihood of the refugees. The annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany and the colossal failure of the Évian Conference on Refugees reinforced the urgency of helping the desperate asylum seekers. On August 26th, 1938, the Committee’s Acting Executive Secretary sent Bieringer a list of recent arrivals in need of placement.

TAGS: advocates, Anschluss, August 26, Boston, document, emigration, Evian conference, Great Depression, immigration, impoverishment, Jewish Community, letter, refugees, transnational networks, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Willy Nordwind Collection, AR 10551

Original:

Box 1, folder 38

Source available in English

23

SATURDAY

23

Excuses from Évian

The Jewish community takes stock of the international refugee conference

“As always, we Jews are merely objects, not partners on an equal footing. To realize this is especially painful on the 34th anniversary of Theodor Herzl's death, but the fact that close to 40 Jewish organizations participated in Évian as mere spectators indicates well enough how little even we Jews - even in matters of our own existence as a people - have progressed.”

Évian-les-Bains

After the Anschluss, the problem of refugees from Germany and Austria became even more pressing. In order to address the issue, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt had called for an international conference in Évian in July, 1938. The conference was anticipated with great hopes by the German-Jewish community but, due to the refusal of the international community to adjust immigration quotas to actual needs, the impact of Évian was extremely limited. Nevertheless, the Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt für Rheinland und Westfalen (Jewish Community Newsletter for Rhineland and Westphalia) tried to present some positive results by pointing out the readiness of several South American countries to absorb Jewish refugees. Regardless of the palpable attempt to remain hopeful, the underlying tone of this front page article in the July 23 issue is not one of excessive optimism.

TAGS: Anschluss, commentary, emigration, Evian conference, Evian-les-Baines, immigration, Journalism, July 23, media coverage, politics, press article, prominent people, refugees, South America

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Von Evian nach London”, Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt für Rheinland und Westfalen

Original:

No. 29, Band 8, p. 1.

21

THURSDAY

21

Cautious optimism

Reich Representation of Jews in Germany evaluates Évian Conference

It was practically the only concrete result of the Évian Conference, so organized German-Jewry had little choice but to pin its hopes in the newly founded International Refugee Committee.

Berlin

As reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on this day in 1938, five days after the end of the Évian Conference (July 6-15), the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany published its first statement on the outcome of the convention in the Jüdische Rundschau, the paper of the Zionist movement. The organization voiced cautious optimism and opined that the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, which had been set up at the conference with the goal of facilitating permanent resettlement, would have a positive effect on emigration.

TAGS: Berlin, emigration, Evian conference, Evian-les-Baines, Journalism, JTA, July 21, media coverage, politics, refugees, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Reich Jews Ask Emigration Aid from Abroad to Solve Refugee Problem”

Source available in English

4

MONDAY

4

Hope for US leadership

A new initiative for the refugees begins to take shape

Washington, D.C.

On April 4, 1938, Arthur Sweetser, a member of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, met with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the meeting, the two discussed the situation of German and Austrian Jews urgently seeking ways to emigrate. Roosevelt brought up the idea of an international conference. His reasoning was simple: only under determined US leadership could the problem be solved and other nations be convinced to take in Jewish refugees. It remains disputed whether the idea of a joint debate on the situation of the Jews under the Nazi regime came from Roosevelt himself or rather from high-ranking State Department officials.

TAGS: April 4, emigration, Evian conference, League of Nations, photo, politics, prominent people, refugees, United States of America, Washington D.C.

SOURCE

Institution:

Library of Congress

Collection:

President Franklin Roosevelt, 1938. Harris and Ewing Photograph Collection, Library of Congress.

Original:

LC-H21- C-820 (P&P)

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