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The most
straightforward answer is that they simply had nowhere to go. For
the Jews of Europe, as noted in Chaim Weizmann's famous remark, the
world was divided into two: places where they could not live and
places where they could not go. The restrictive immigration
practices of the major overseas countries vis-à-vis Jewish
refugees reflected a global climate of economic protectionism tinged
with xenophobia and outright anti-Semitism. An international
conference on refugees at Evian (France) in July 1938, initiated by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, proved to be a complete fiasco.
Except for the Dominican Republic, none of the representatives of
the 32 countries invited offered prospective Jewish refugees from
Germany and Austria any hope whatsoever.
Another
explanation is that the intermittent and uneven application of the
anti-Semitic pressure during the Nazi regime's first years sent
confusing signals to the Jewish victims, lulling their sense of
danger and allowing them to believe that the worst had already
passed. A panic exodus of Jews from Nazi-dominated Europe ensued
only after the spring of 1938, in the wake of the annexation of
Austria in March of that year, and intensified after the November
pogrom. By that time, Jews were willing to emigrate to any place
they could. |
