The 10 dark days of Evian
From July 6 to 15, 1938, representatives from 32 countries and dozens of humanitarian organizations gathered in the upscale spa town of Evian on the French side of Lake Geneva. Their goal, as reported by Deutsche Welle, was to find a way out for approximately half a million Jews from the Third Reich.
The conference came five and a half years after Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany and three and a half months after the annexation of Austria. At that time, the Nazi regime had not yet begun the systematic process of mass murder, but the situation for Jewish people had been deteriorating steadily since 1935.
The racist Nuremberg Laws, enacted in 1935, had stripped Jews of their German citizenship. Internationally, it was known that Jews were excluded from schools, universities, and public life, and that those who wanted to leave what was then called 'Greater Germany' had to relinquish a large proportion of their assets.
The conference and its failure
The Evian Conference was initiated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The conference ended with no country committing to accept a significant number of Jewish refugees, a result that Deutsche Welle describes as a clear signal to the Nazi regime that the democratic world would not lift a finger to protect the Jews.
One notable exception was the Dominican Republic, which offered to accept up to 100,000 Jews. However, due to bureaucratic problems and the outbreak of World War II, only a few hundred actually reached the country.
The conference also led to the creation of the Intergovernmental Refugee Committee (IGC), but it proved to be powerless in the face of the growing crisis.
Key claims
- The Evian Conference took place from July 6 to 15, 1938, and was attended by representatives from 32 countries and dozens of humanitarian organizations.
- The goal was to find a way out for approximately half a million Jews from the Third Reich.
- The Nazi regime had not yet begun the systematic process of mass murder at the time of the conference.
- The racist Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship.
- Jews were excluded from schools, universities, and public life.
- US President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the Evian Conference.
- The Intergovernmental Refugee Committee (IGC) was created but was powerless.
- Golda Meir attended the conference as an observer in 1938.
- No country committed to accepting a significant number of Jewish refugees.
- The conference sent a clear signal to the Nazi regime that the democratic world would not protect the Jews.
- The Nazi regime orchestrated the November Pogroms in Germany and Austria just four months after the conference.
- The Dominican Republic offered to accept up to 100,000 Jews, but only a few hundred actually arrived.
Aftermath
Just four months after the Evian Conference, the Nazi regime orchestrated the November Pogroms in Germany and Austria, a violent antisemitic attack that signaled a further escalation in the persecution of Jews. The international community's inaction at Evian is often cited as a contributing factor to the Nazis' belief that they could act with impunity.
The Evian Conference is remembered as a dark moment in international diplomacy, a failure to act in the face of a mounting humanitarian catastrophe. Golda Meir, who would later become Prime Minister of Israel, attended the conference as an observer in 1938, witnessing firsthand the world's refusal to help.