Evian Conference

   No, this post is not about Evian water...though I will have to begin with a side story about how odd I thought it was, back in 1993 when I was living in France for a summer, and people spent 8 Francs on bottled water.  How our world has changed since then!  Bottled water is everywhere in the United States, to the chagrin of activists.

Not Evian...but links to Poland and "pure life".... 

    So maybe this is a little bit connected to Evian water.  "To the Chagrin of Activists"... The water is named for its source, a pristine spring in France, not far from Geneva.  Evian-les-Sources was not only the site of this healing water, but also the site of a major conference in 1938.   By this time, it was clear that thousands upon thousands of Jewish people were in dire need of escape from Germany, but leaders of other nations hesitated about accepting in so many refugees.  The purpose of this conference was to come up for a solution of how to help the refugees.    "To the Chagrin of Activists"...the conference was a dire failure.

    It was destined to be a dire failure because of the shady leadership and mixed values of those initiating the conference.   The leaders didn't want to take on more immigrants; the conference's main purpose was to encourage other countries to take the "unwanted" throngs.   Remember,  there was a Great Depression going on and most countries finances were in disrepair.  Nobody expected the degree of slaughter that actually happened; hindsight is 20/20, as they say.  And, tragically, Germany was not the only nation to suffer from antisemitism.

    I shiver when I think that so many people's lives came down to simply a matter of quotas.  At this point,  Hitler was still allowing non-Aryans to leave the country,  "even on luxury ships."  My guess is that he was hedging his bets.  If other countries agreed to take the refugees, then they wouldn't be his problem anymore.  However, he assumed (correctly) that other countries would balk at the suggestion to open their doors, and this would enable his further horrific advances.   Countries used quotas and other red tape to keep their doors closed.   Immigration was so complicated, in terms of seeking sponsors and documentation, that the United States still had not filled it quota for immigrants from European countries.  FDR didn't want people to know this, just as Winston Churchill didn't want the public to turn their eyes to Palestine (which was, at the time, under the control of England).  The US and Great Britain even made a pact, prior to the conference, not to bring up either of these sticky wickets.

     I think about T.W. White, the delegate from Australia, who said "It will no doubt be appreciated also that as we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one...".

     I think about Golda Meir and Chaim Weizmann, present at the conference but unable to speak due to procedural rules.  The latter, so disheartened by the inaction, wrote:   "The world seemed to be divided into two parts – those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."

    Then, I think about the oddest footnote to all this history.  One country opened its doors to the Jewish refugees.  The Dominican Republic allowed 100,000 (yes, that's the right number of zeros) Jews and non-Aryans to flee Europe to their Caribbean island...whose leader, Trujillo, is now famous for his violent dictatorship against his own people.  It turns out that only about 800 Jewish people took him up on the offer, but the community of Sosua still has some of their descendants to this day.

    The Evian Conference failed.  The status quo remained, with many people in dire danger in Germany.  However, the failure to act was an action.  Hitler and the Nazis saw this as indication of the world's apathy.   In an apathetic world, it is easier to wreak havoc.   Just four months later,  Kristallnacht shattered not only glass but also so many hopes and lives.

     "To the Chagrin of Activists"....  What are the results of apathy today?  What are the results of inaction?  I shudder as I think of this.

      On Sunday, I was outraged by so much racism on Facebook.  How could people say such cruel things?  How could people I have supposedly "friended" believe that by using strong language with powerful graphics, malicious accusations would become the truth?  What will the effects of all this be--if I speak up, or if I am silent?

     I cannot be apathetic.  I must care.  I do care.  And by caring, I must act.  I must speak out with truth and advocacy.  I must be the Lorax who speaks for the trees, and the island country who welcomes the unwelcomed.  I must not only be a safe haven, but I must help others find their way to their own safe havens.   Long live the activists!