Fleeing The Holocaust: Did Jews Break Laws?

Between 1933 and 1939, the Nazi regime passed hundreds of laws, decrees, and regulations that restricted the civil and human rights of Jews in Germany. These laws discriminated against Jews, removing them from government jobs and preventing them from engaging in social activities. Jewish businesses were boycotted, and Jewish people were prohibited from practising in professions such as medicine and law. The Nuremberg Laws, introduced in 1935, stripped German Jews of their citizenship, barred them from marrying non-Jews, and prevented them from flying the German flag. As a result, many Jews fleeing Nazi Germany broke laws in their attempt to escape persecution.

The Nuremberg Laws

On September 15, 1935, the Nazi regime announced two new laws related to race: The Reich Citizenship Law and The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour. These laws, first announced at a Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, became known as the Nuremberg Laws or Nuremberg Race Laws.

The Reich Citizenship Law stated that only those of "German or related blood" could be Reich citizens. Jews, defined as a separate race, could not be full citizens of Germany and had no political rights. They were labelled as "German subjects", a status inferior to that of citizens.

The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour barred marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and other Germans. It also prohibited Jews from employing German females under 45 in their households and forbade them from flying the German flag.

The Evian Conference

The conference was attended by representatives from 32 countries, and 24 voluntary organisations also attended as observers. Golda Meir, the attendee from British Mandatory Palestine, was not permitted to speak or participate in the proceedings except as an observer. Some 200 international journalists gathered at Évian to observe and report on the meeting. The Soviet Union refused to take part in the conference.

The delegates expressed sympathy for the Jews who were seeking to flee Nazi persecution. However, most countries, including the United States and Great Britain, refused to admit more refugees and offered excuses for not letting in more refugees. The conference thus inadvertently became a useful tool for Nazi propaganda.

The Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews, who were already persecuted by the Hitler regime, of their German citizenship. They were classified as "subjects" and became stateless in their own country. By 1938, some 450,000 of about 900,000 German Jews were expelled or fled Germany, mostly to France and British Mandatory Palestine.

The Haavara (Transfer) Agreement

Under the agreement, emigrants sold their assets in Germany to pay for essential goods (manufactured in Germany) to be shipped to Mandatory Palestine. The agreement was controversial and was criticised by some Zionists, non-Zionist Jews, and members of the Nazi Party and the German public. For German Jews, the agreement offered a way to leave an increasingly hostile environment in Germany. For the Jewish community in Palestine, it offered access to immigrant labour and economic support. For the Germans, it facilitated the emigration of Jews while breaking the anti-Nazi boycott of 1933, which was supported by European and American Jews and was thought by the German state to be a potential threat to the German economy.

The agreement was controversial both within the Nazi party and the Zionist movement. Historian Edwin Black wrote: "The Transfer Agreement tore the Jewish world apart, turning leader against leader, threatening rebellion and even assassination." Opposition came from the mainstream US leadership of the World Zionist Congress, as well as the Anti-Nazi boycott of 1933.

The Haavara Agreement was a major factor in making possible the migration of approximately 60,000 German Jews to Palestine between 1933 and 1939. The agreement provided a substantial export market for German factories in British-ruled Palestine. Between November 1933 and 31 December 1937, 77,800,000 Reichsmarks, or $22,500,000 (in 1938 currency) worth of goods were exported to Jewish businesses in Palestine under the program. By the time the program ended with the start of World War II, the total had risen to 105,000,000 marks (about $35,000,000, 1939 values).

The Evian Conference

The conference was attended by representatives from 32 countries, and 24 voluntary organisations also attended as observers. Golda Meir, the attendee from British Mandatory Palestine, was not permitted to speak or participate in the proceedings except as an observer. Some 200 international journalists gathered at Évian to observe and report on the meeting. The Soviet Union refused to take part in the conference, though direct talks on the resettlement of Jews and Slavs between the German and Soviet governments proceeded at the time of the conference and afterward.

The conference ultimately failed to achieve its objective. Aside from the Dominican Republic and later Costa Rica, delegations from the 32 participating nations failed to come to any agreement about accepting the Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. The conference thus inadvertently proved to be a useful tool for Nazi propaganda. Adolf Hitler responded to the news of the conference by saying that if other nations agreed to take the Jews, he would help them leave.

The Bermuda Conference

The British government's proposal to the U.S. State Department suggested that the Allied countries hold a conference to discuss the possibility of evacuating refugees who had reached neutral countries to safe havens. However, the Foreign Office expressed concern that their plan to rescue Jews might be too successful, fearing that Germany might change its policy from extermination to extrusion, leading to other countries being flooded with immigrants.

The U.S. delayed responding to the proposal for several weeks, until Jewish leaders organized a mass demonstration in New York's Madison Square Garden, after which the State Department recognized the public relations value of the conference. Bermuda was chosen as the location, likely due to wartime regulations restricting access, which would keep the deliberations out of the public eye.

The conference was organized in a way that hindered its ability to produce meaningful results. Both the British and American governments restricted what their delegates could promise before the meeting. The U.S. instructed its representatives not to make commitments on shipping, funds, or new relief agencies, and the Roosevelt Administration emphasized their lack of power to change immigration laws. Additionally, the British government prohibited discussion on its policy of admitting refugees to Palestine.

The delegates at the Bermuda Conference included Dr. Harold W. Dodds, who led the American delegation, and Richard Law, a junior minister at the Foreign Office, who headed the British delegation. No private organizations or observers were admitted, but interested Jewish organizations in America and England prepared memoranda proposing rescue measures.

After 12 days of secret deliberations, the conference concluded with very few tangible outcomes. The delegates' list of proposals included the decision to not approach Hitler for the release of potential refugees, suggestions for aiding refugees in Spain, and a declaration on the postwar repatriation of refugees. The conferees kept their report secret, but they did convey to the press that most of the submitted proposals had been rejected. The conference's lack of substantial results was met with outrage by Jewish organizations, with one group taking out a three-quarter-page advertisement in "The New York Times" condemning Bermuda as a 'cruel mockery.'

The only agreement reached at the Bermuda Conference was the acknowledgment that the war against the Nazis must be won. U.S. immigration quotas were not raised, and the British prohibition on Jewish refugees seeking refuge in Mandatory Palestine remained in place. The conference's failure to produce meaningful solutions to the refugee crisis resulted in continued tragedy for the Jews of Europe.

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