Erwartungen an Évian

Overview & Synopsis

The Évian Conference was a major diplomatic event. Drawing on contemporary letters, diaries, and memoranda from representatives of Jewish organizations, and in the context of international refugee and migration policy, Martin Jost offers a new perspective on the iconic refugee conference and the expectations it engendered: In July 1938, advocates for the persecuted viewed the results of the negotiations and the founding of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees as a hopeful beginning and a realistic path for the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Jews from German sphere of influence. In light of the unprecedented Nazi policy of extermination, this perception changed: The experience of the Holocaust led to an interpretation of the conference as a missed opportunity to save European Jewry.