U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum/Wide World Photo

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Evian

Conference

MSU alums share research on failed
event to save Germany’s Jews.

Elihu Baver | Special to the Jewish News

J

uly marked the 78th anniversary
of the Evian conference, known as
one of “the most fateful events in
the history of the Jewish people.” It was
convened upon the direction of then-U.S.
President Franklin Roosevelt.
Yielding to pressure from the world
community to decide the fate of flee-
ing and displaced European Jews, FDR
assembled the Evian Conference, sum-
moning delegates and representatives
from 32 countries and several relief orga-
nizations to Evian-les-Bains, a small spa
town in coastal France later known for its
popular pure spring water.
Known as Hitler’s “green light to geno-
cide,” the conference failed to penetrate
the world’s indifference and general
unwillingness to accept Jewish refugees
and, in many eyes, “sanctioned” Hitler’s
actions.
Surprisingly, the only world country in
attendance at the 1938 conference that
opened its doors to the Jewish refugees
was the tiny Dominican Republic then
led by dictator Rafael Trujillo, who com-
mitted to establishing a small agricultural
settlement for the Jewish refugees on
the north coast of the island in Sosua.
Currently, there are the remnants of a
vanishing Jewish community as well as
an operating synagogue in Sosua that
conducts services on the High Holidays
and Passover.
During the summer,
two former Michigan
State University alumni,
Dr. Dennis Laffer and
I, presented a lecture
on the 1938 Evian
Conference at Belfer
Hall on the Yeshiva
Dr. Dennis
University
campus
Laffer
in New York City at
the request of Dr.

16 October 27 • 2016

Karen Shawn, associ-
ate professor of Jewish
education at the Azrieli
Graduate School of
Jewish Education and
American representative Myron Taylor addresses delegates at the 1938 Evian conference.
Administration.
I have been conduct-
documentation or photos of any kind.
ing lectures on the topic,
The manager, having only known of
with a focus on Sosua, in
the G8 World Summit that the resort
the Boston/New England
hosted back in 2003, was amazed to find
area since 2015.
photos and the Evian Conference story
At Y.U., we spoke to
on the web. He called the hotel’s upper
nine aspiring educa-
management to inquire further and, soon
tors in a graduate-level
after, led me to the large exterior room
summer Jewish studies
where this historic conference took place.
class focusing on the
The manager allowed me to personally
Holocaust taught by
view the 1938 guest manifest book of the
Shawn.
conference attendees, retrieved from a
When I prepared
dusty shelf in an administrative office. I
for the lecture, I found
feel the book should be placed in a muse-
Laffer’s 2011 compre-
um as an important Evian conference
hensive graduate thesis
Jewish history artifact for safe keeping
and dissertation on the
and for all to view.
topic, “Jewish Trail of
At the conclusion of my visit, I was
Tears, Evian Conference Elihu Baver with the Hotel Royal guest book from 1938
presented with a gift from the Hotel
of July 1938,” on the
Royal management, an acrylic encased
web. I forwarded Laffer
brass door knob from the original hotel
a recent video taken in
centration camps.
structure, collected prior to recent reno-
Evian last December at the Hotel Royale,
“I have come to agree with the view-
vations. The knob bears the Edelwiess
where I was wearing an MSU Spartan ball
point proposed by Professor David
flower found only in the Swiss and
cap. Then the connection was sealed.
Wyman and others that FDR did little to
French Alps.
We both agree there is a surpris-
aid Jewish refugees during the critical
ingly limited amount of information on
pre-war and intra-war periods,” Laffer
Elihu Baver, a former Detroiter now of New
the web and conveyed in educational
said, “and that this international gath-
Hampshire, is board chairman of Sosua75.org, a
circles about the Evian Conference and
ering was primarily a publicity ploy
Massachusetts-based nonprofit commemorating the
its impact, along with the Sosua Jewish
designed to deflect any changes in
Sosua Jewish settlement established after the Evian
settlement where a fortunate few Jews
American immigration policies.”
Conference on the north coast of the Dominican
were saved.
Last December, while on a business
Republic.
What is more popularly known is the
trip to Geneva, Switzerland, I traveled
direct influence and horrendous conse-
across Lake Geneva to Evian, France, and Dr. Dennis Laffer, a former Detroiter now of Tampa,
quences tied to the conference outcome
visited the 1938 conference site. I was
currently is researching the Wagner-Rogers Bill of
— Kristallnacht occurred three months
1939 and the Hennings Bill of 1940, regarding admis-
later, followed by Hitler’s implementation surprised no one at the hotel had any
knowledge that this conference ever took sion of German Jewish children and British children
of his “Final Solution,” during which 6
place there. There was not a trace, no
into the U.S.
million Jews were exterminated in con-

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