Poster Number 13: The World s Response the Evian Conference

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1 Poster Number 13: The World s Response the Evian Conference Whither? In July 1938, at the initiative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, an international conference on refugees convened in Evian, France. The conference had supposedly been convened to discuss the general problem of refugees, although at this stage the majority of refugees were Jews. The conference proved useless with regard to solving the refugee crisis i.e. in terms of finding destinations for the refugees. The Dominican Republic was the only country willing to accept a large number of refugees, on the condition that the Jewish organizations raise the funds necessary for their absorption in the country. The failure of the conference aggravate the Jews plight and intensified the Jewish refugee problem as a world problem. The conference s only practical result was the establishment of an Intergovernmental Committee headed by George Rublee. Readings for Poster number 13 A. Two weeks after the Anschluss, in its meeting of March 28, 1938, the Swiss Federal Council (the country s executive branch) decided: In view of the measures already taken and being prepared by other countries against the influx of Austrian refugees, we find ourselves in a difficult situation. It is clear that Switzerland can only be a transit country for the refugees from Germany and from Austria. Apart from the situation of our labor market, the present excessive degree of foreign presence imposes the strictest defense measures against a longer stay of such elements. If we 37

2 do not want to create a basis for an anti-semitism movement that would be unworthy of our country, we must defend ourselves with all our strength and, if need be, with ruthlessness against the immigration of foreign Jews, mostly those from the East. We have to think of the future and therefore we cannot allow ourselves to let in such foreigners for the sake of immediate advantages Saul Friedländer Nazi Germany and the Jews the years of persecution New York, 1997 pp B. The expulsion of Jews from the Sudetenland was described by Hermann Göring in ironic terms: During the night [following the entry of the German troops into the Sudetenland], the Jews were expelled to Czecho-Slovakia. In the morning, the Czechs got hold of them and sent them to Hungary. From Hungary back to Germany, then back to Czecho-Slovakia. Thus, they turned round and round. Finally, they ended up on a riverboat on the Danube. There they camped. As soon as they set foot on the river bank they were pushed back. Saul Friedländer Nazi Germany and the Jews the years of persecution New York, 1997 pp Discussion Questions for Poster Number 13 1) What implications did the words of the delegates to the Evian Conference have for the fate of the girl in the picture and for the fate of the Jews of Germany and Austria in 1938? 2) Why did the question whither? become so relevant for Jews at the time? 38

3 Poster Number 14: Deportation to Zbaszyn Deportation to Zbaszyn Zbaszyn is a small Polish town near Poland s border with Germany. In 1938, a camp was established there for Jews holding Polish citizenship who had been deported from Germany. The immediate reason for their deportation by the Germans was a decree by the Polish Interior Ministry, according to which all Polish citizens who had been residing outside of Poland for over five years would automatically lose their citizenship if they did not return to Poland within two weeks. The German government, concerned that thousands of Polish Jews would remain in Germany for lack of any other place to go, reacted with an immediate order of deportation. The deportations took place throughout Germany. The deportees were allowed to take only ten marks per person. They were forbidden to take any valuables and were not given the chance to put their affairs in order. The majority were deported by train, but large groups were deported by foot and were beaten and forced to cross the Polish frontier. The deportees were lodged in barracks and flour mills and endured inhuman conditions. Among the Zbaszyn deportees was the Grynszpan family from Hanover. In an effort to take revenge for his family s plight, their son, Herschel Grynszpan, shot a German diplomat in Paris. This assassination served as the pretext for the Kristallnacht pogrom. Most of the deportees were re-absorbed in Poland after an extended stay in the camp. 39

4 Reading for Poster Number 14 Emmanuel Ringelblum s notes on the refugees in Zbaszyn Srodborow, December 6, 1938 Dear Raphael, I am on holiday in Srodborow. I worked in Zbaszyn for five weeks. Apart from Ginzberg, I am among the few who managed to hold out there for a long time. Almost all the others broke down after a more or less short time. I have neither the strength nor the patience to describe for you everything that happened in Zbaszyn. Anyway, I think there has never been so ferocious, so pitiless a deportation of any Jewish Community as this German deportation. I saw one woman who was taken from her home in Germany while she was still in her pajamas (this woman is now halfdemented). I saw a woman of over 50 who was taken from her house paralyzed; afterwards she was carried all the way to the border in an armchair by young Jewish men. (She is in hospital until this day). I saw a man suffering from sleeping sickness who was carried across the border on a stretcher, a cruelty not to be matched in all history. In the course of those five weeks we (originally Giterman, Ginzberg and I, and after ten days I and Ginzberg, that is), set up a whole township with departments for supplies, hospitalization, carpentry workshops, tailors, shoemakers, books, a legal section, a migration department and an independent post office (with 53 employees), a welfare office, a court of arbitration, an organizing committee, open and secret control services, a cleaning service, and a complex sanitation service, etc. In addition to people from Poland, almost 500 refugees from Germany are employed in the sections I listed above. The most important thing is that is not a situation where some give and some receive. The refugees look on us as brothers who have hurried to help them at a time of distress and tragedy. Almost all the responsible jobs are carried out by refugees. The warmest and most friendly relations exist between us and the refugees. It is not the mouldering spirit of philanthropy, which so easily have 40

5 infiltrated into the work. For that reason all those in need of our aid enjoy receiving it. Nobody s human feelings are hurt. Every complain of bad treatment is investigated, and more than on philanthropist has been sent away from here. We have begun on cultural activities. The first thing we introduced was the speaking of Yiddish. It has become quite the fashion in the camp. We have organized classes in Polish, attended by about 200 persons, and other classes. There are several reading rooms, a library; the religious groups have set up a Talmud Torah [religious school]. There are concerts, and a choir is active. Zbaszyn has become a symbol for the defencelessness of the Jews of Poland. Jews were humiliated to the level of lepers, to citizens of the third class, and as a result we are all visited by terrible tragedy. Zbaszyn was a heavy moral blow against the Jewish population of Poland. And it is for this reason that all the threads lead from the Jewish masses to Zbaszyn and to the Jews who suffer there Please accept my warmest good wishes and kisses from Emmanuel Documents on the Holocaust - Selected sources on the destruction of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union. Edited by Yitzhak Arad, Yisrael Gutman, Abraham Margaliot. Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, 1981 pp Discussion Question for Poster Number 14 What power, in your opinion, does Dr. Emmanuel Ringelblum s pen have, and what does it add to the picture in describing the suffering and humiliation of the Jews deported to Zbaszyn? 41