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Excerpt from a plan for rescue of refugees that was submitted to the Bermuda
Conference by Jewish leaders.
AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS
330 WEST 42nd STREET NEW YORK CITY
STEPHEN S. WISE, President
CARL SHERMAN, Chairman, Executive Committee
NATHAN D. PERLMAN, Vice President
LEO H. LOWITZ, Vice President
LOUIS LIPSKY, Chairman, Governing Council
M. MALDWIN FERTIG, Chairman, Administrative Committee
JACOB LEICHTMAN, Treasurer
April 14, 1943
Hon. Sumner Wlles
Under Secretary of State
State Department
Washington, D.C.
My Dear Secretary Welles:
In behalf of the joint Emergency Committee for European Jewish Affairs,
comprising the American Jewish Committee the American Jewish Congress; the
B'nai B'rith the Jewish Labor Committee. the American Emergency Committee for
Zionist Affairs of the Zionist organization of America; Hadassah; Mizrachi; and
the Poale Zion; the Synagogue Council of America; the Agudath Israel of
America, Inc.; and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in America, we submit through
you to the Bermuda Conference, scheduled to open on April 19th, the enclosed
Memorandum and appendix, setting forth a program of rescue to be undertaken for
the Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe, otherwise doomed to destruction. The
signatories, to these Memoranda represent leading Jewish organizations in the
United States with whom are affiliated a large majority of the Jewish
population of this country.
These Memoranda set forth the principal projects representing, in our
considered judgment, basic action to be undertaken immediately by the United
Nations if the remnants of European Jewry are to be saved from destruction.
Among these are:
(1) Negotiations with the Axis Powers through neutral governments to permit the
exit of Jews from Axis-occupied countries;
(2) The creation of temporary and permanent Sanctuaries for them by the United
Nations;
(3) In view of the fact that planned starvation is one of the methods of
accomplishing the extermination of the Jewish populace of Europe, the feeding
of those sections of the Jewish population in occupied Europe who will not be
permitted to leave.
We would be less than frank if we did not convey to you the anguish of the
Jewish community of this country over the failure of the United Nations to act
until now to rescue the Jews of Europe. For many months it has been
authenticated that the Nazis have marked the Jewish population of Europe for
total extermination and that it is estimated that almost three million Jews
have been done to death, while a similar fate awaits those who remain. World
civilization has been stirred to its depths by these horrors. Every section of
public opinion throughout the world, and more particularly in England and in
the United States, has spoken out in the demand that the United Nations act
before it is too late to save those who can still be saved. Six months have
elapsed, however, and no action has as yet been taken. In the meantime it is
reported that thousands of Jews continue to be murdered daily.
When first the Conference, which is now to open in Bermuda, was announced,
it was our hope that at last effective action would be immediately forthcoming
on
the part of the United Nations. These hopes are seriously disturbed by three
developments:
(1) Both our State Department and the Foreign Minister of Great Britain have
announced that the Bermuda Conference is to be primarily exploratory.
(2) At this writing neither the United States nor Great Britain has seen fit to
call into consultation the representative organizations of the Jewish
communities of their respective countries. Nor has either Government seen fit
to invite delegations representing the organized Jewish communities of these
two countries to participate in the deliberations to be held in Bermuda.
(3) There are the doubts aroused by the isolation of the Conference in a place
completely inaccessible to the influences of public opinion or public
personalities, except by Government permission.
When millions of human beings have already been done to death, and the fact of
their murder has been authenticated by the United Nations, the time for
exploration has long since passed, and the time for action is long past due.
Unless action in undertaken immediately, there may soon be no Jews left alive
in Europe.
In communicating these views to you it is our purpose at this time also
formally to place before you the request that a delegation representing the
joint Emergency Committee for European Jewish Affairs be invited to the Bermuda
Conference to present our views on the program of rescue to be undertaken for
the Jews of Europe.
It is our sincere hope that you, who have long had an intimate and, I believe,
sympathetic knowledge of this problem, will lend your influence to insure that
the Bermuda Conference may serve as the instrument of humanity in rescuing a
defenseless people who are otherwise doomed to complete annihilation.
Respectfully submitted,
JOINT EMERGENCY COMMITTEE FOR EUROPEAN JEWISH AFFAIRS
CO-CHAIRMEN:
STEPHEN S. WISE, PRESIENT
American Jewish Congress
JOSEPH M. PROSKAUER, PRESIDENT
American Jewish Comittee
HENRY MONSKY, PRESIDENT
B'nai B'rith
ADOLPH HELD, PRESIDENT
Jewish Labor Committee
ISRAEL GOLDSTEIN, PRESIDENT
Synagogue Council of America
(signed by Stephen Wise)
In the belief that it may contribute to such a program, the following
proposals are respectfully submitted:
I. The United Nations should approach the German Government, and the
governments of the states it now partly dominates or controls, through the
Vatican or neutral governments like Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey,
Argentine, with a view to securing their agreement to the release of their
Jewish victims and to the emigration of Jews to such havens of refuge as may be
provided.
II. The United Nations should, without delay, take steps to designate and
establish a number of Sanctuaries in Allied and neutral countries to
accommodate substantial numbers of Hitler's victims and to serve as havens of
refuge for those Jews whose release from captivity may be arranged for, or who
may find their way to freedom through efforts of their own.
III. The procedure that now prevails in the administration of the existing
immigration law in the United States, which acts as a deterrent and retardation
of legal immigration under the established quotas, should be revised and
adjusted to war conditions, in order that refugees from Nazi-occupied
territories, within such quotas, may find Sanctuary here.
IV. Subject to provisions for its national security, England should be asked to
provide for receiving a reasonable number of victims escaping from
Nazi-occupied territories and to provide for their accomodation for the
duration.
V. The possibilities in several British territories, both in Africa and in the
Caribbean, should be explored without delay. Sanctuary has already been
afforded to thousands of refugees in these territories and there is room for
many more, if not for permanent settlement, at least for the duration.
VI. The United Nations should urge the Republics of Latin America to modify
such administrative regulations that now make immigration under the law
extremely difficult, and to endeavor to find temporary havens of refuge for a
substantial number of refugees.
VII. Overriding pre-war political considerations, England should be persuaded
to open the doors of Palestine for Jewish immigration and the offer of
hospitality made by the Jewish Community of Palestine should be accepted.
VIII. The United Nations should provide financial guarantees to all such
neutral states as have given temporary refuge to Jews coming from Nazi-occupied
territories and to provide for their feeding and maintenance and eventual
evacuation. The neutral states should be guaranteed that the refugees will not
become a public charge and that they will be transferred to permanent
Sanctuaries as soon as possible.
IX. In order to do away with the lack of identity which many stateless refugees
present, and to give them sponsorship and protection, an arrangement similar to
that which existed under the League of Nations should be established and the
Stateless refugees should be given identification passports analogous to the
"Nansen" passports.
X. In view of the fact that mass starvation is the design of the Nazi regime,
the United Nations should take appropriate steps without delay to organize a
system for the feeding of the victims of Nazi oppression who are unable to
leave the jurisdiction and the control of the Axis.
XI. It is submitted that the United Nations undertake to provide the financial
guarantees that may be required for the execution of the program of rescue here
outlined.
XII. The United Nations are urged to establish an appropriate intergovernmental
agency, to which full authority and power should be given to implement the
program of rescue here outlined.
In support of these proposals an appendix is attached.
In the name of humanity and of the ideals which the Armed Forces of the United
Nations have arisen to defend, we respectfully submit this appeal in the hope
that effective action will be taken without delay.
JOINT EMERGENCY COMMITTEE
FOR EUROPEAN JEWISH AFFAIRS
of
American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee
B'Nai B'rith, Jewish Labor Committee
American Emergency Committee , Synagogue Council of America for Zionist Affairs
Agudath Israel of America, Inc. Union of Orthodox Rabbis of America
April 14, 1943
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