Roosevelt Calls the Meeting

Abstract

This chapter examines the origins of the Evian Conference of July 1938. Showing that it was the initiative of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the chapter examines the domestic political stimulus behind his calling of the meeting in the immediate aftermath of the German invasion of Austria in March 1938. The chapter analyses the wording of the invitation to selected nations of the world to attend the projected conference to discuss the Jewish refugee problem, and what this wording signified. The chapter places the idea of the conference within the context of its time, showing that it was not intended to open up immigration for refugees but, rather, to discuss the policies of the various countries that would be attending the meeting once it was convened.

No country would be expected or asked to receive a greater number of emigrants than is permitted by its existing legislation.

United States State Department invitation (The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA), DO 35, file 716/M576/1, memorandum to His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom from the Embassy of the United States, London , March 24, 1938.).