Nazis given the “Green Light”
I believe in the age-old saying, "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.” Although the current global sentiment despises the Holocaust of World War II, the nations of the world collectively turned their backs on millions of European Jews seeking refuge from the oppression of Nazi Germany between 1933-1941.
Things looked more hopeful at the onset of the war. United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt spearheaded plans for the Évian Conference which was held in July 1938, at Evian-les-Bains, France. The conference aimed to address the problem of German and Austrian Jews wishing to flee persecution by Nazi forces and motivate countries across the Western hemisphere to offer refuge, although Roosevelt took pains to avoid stating that objective expressly. Historians have suggested he wanted to deflect attention and criticism from American policy that severely limited the quota of refugees admitted to the United States.
The conference was attended by representatives from 32 countries. Two dozen voluntary organizations also attended as observers, presenting plans either orally or in writing. Some 200 international journalists gathered at Évian to report on the meeting.
The humanitarian meeting soon became a political hotbed. Golda Meir, the attendee from British Mandate Palestine, was not permitted to speak or participate in the proceedings except as an observer. The Soviet Union refused to take part in the conference, though direct talks on resettlement of Jews and Slavs between German and Soviet governments proceeded during and after the event. In the end, the Soviet Union refused to accept refugees and a year later ordered its border guards to treat all Jews attempting to cross into Soviet territory as spies.
Adolf Hitler responded to the news of the conference by saying, if other nations agreed to take the Jews, he would help them leave. The conference thus inadvertently proved to be a useful propaganda tool for the Nazis. The Dominican Republic was the only delegation that agreed to accept Jewish refugees fleeing the Third Reich. More than 30 other participating nations stayed silent, including the U.S.
In 1938, there was no “safe haven” for the worldwide Jewish Diaspora, and those in Europe had nowhere to flee from the evil being poured out against them. Today, however, this same dispersed group of people can flee to the State of Israel when the next holocaust comes upon them.
Just as the prophet Ezekiel stated, "Thus says the Lord GOD: 'When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered and am hallowed in them in the sight of the Gentiles, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob.'" (Ezekiel 28:25 - NKJV)
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