Europe’s Refugee Problem, Then and Now

May 28, 2015 Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein

In July 1938, representatives from 32 countries in Europe, North America, and Australia, meeting in Évian-les-Bains, France, refused to accept Jewish refugees from Austria and Germany. At a time when Europe is increasingly turning its back on migrants, it is vital to recall this history.

NEW YORK – Earlier this spring, I drove to a beautiful spot on the southern bank of Lake Geneva. My destination was the Hotel Royale in Évian-les-Bains. It was there, in July 1938, that 32 nations met for a shameful discussion that has been virtually airbrushed from our memory.

Convened by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the massive refugee crisis triggered by Hitler’s virulent anti-Semitism, the Évian conference was a catastrophe. And its disastrous outcome needs to be recalled in the light of Europe’s current migration crisis.

The Évian conference was supposed to address the plight of hundreds of thousands of German and Austrian Jews who were desperate for refuge. Roosevelt believed that only a collective solution could meet the challenge. Hitler, too, hoped that other countries would accept them.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 3 Comments on this article

Karolina Romanska Sep 30, 2015

Well said. I like the refreshingly civil and level-headed tone of this article. I do believe it touches on a couple important facts, potentially helpful in today's refugee crisis - that apart from Europe, also Australia and Canada could help resettle vast numbers of refugees; and that today we do not face the problem of "population saturation" or "density", except maybe in the places the migrants are leaving. However, the article fails to address the absence of other countries' contributions to relieving the crisis. Where is Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Iran, Georgia, Azarbeijan, and finally - Russia? Where are the calls upon them to help? What of the United States, the country chiefly responsible for the sorry state of affairs in Iraq today? Are they not members of the United NAtions? Doesn't Saudi Arabia currently chair the Human Rights Council? Wouldn't helping their Muslim refugee bretheren be an appropriate setting of an example? Surely it's not a matter of money or space for them.... I support the cool-headed approach and I agree that we must find a solution to this problem. But I would liefer see everyone involved in it, as otherwise it stops having an semblance of a serious approach.
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j. von Hettlingen Jun 7, 2015

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein compares the current refugee crisis that befalls Europe to the one during World War Two, when Jewish refugees were subject of the 1938 conference at Evian in France. It resulted in no concrete action, as "Europe, North America, and Australia would not accept significant numbers of these refugees".
Politicians from some 30 countries met in Evian, in an attempt to stem the flow of refugees, prompted by an exodus of tens of thousands Jews from Austria and Germany. No country was prepared to accept them, citing it were "already beset with population 'density' and had reached a point of 'saturation'," or it lacked jobs and resources. Britain, which controlled Palestine, closed the country to Jewish emigrants after violent protests by the Arab population against the arrival of over 100,000 Jews since 1933.
It's true that the participants at the Evian conference didn't anticipate Hitler's Holocaust, the scale of the war across Europe and the extent of its devastation. Al Hussein criticises "their lack of moral conscience," then, although many of the countries that "refused to take in suffering refugees were themselves, in due course, occupied and brutalized by the Nazis. He says leaders today are making the same mistake. Yet there's a difference of circumstances.
Today's refugees are fleeing wars and conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, by making perilous journeys across the Mediterranean in rickety boats. It's unfortunate that they face anti-migrant sentimens, if they survive the crossing. Apart from tribulation they are often accused of "swamping" European culture. It's nothing new that migrants and refugees are welcome scapegoats to take the blame for woes and grievances. And Europe has been seeing a rise in "anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia" etc. in recent decades.
For the moment the economic crisis and the rise of ultra-right parties are nothing to compare to the darkest moments of Europe's history. Although in the past, the international community had been able to adopt comprehensive and global solutions to refugee crises, the current crisis poses an unprecedented challenge.
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george sos May 30, 2015

First allow me to clear up a couple of things.
"Europe"not including Greece of course.
Here ,refugees were mostly welcome.And with exception the Nazi friendly right wing vultures and dictators that did not represent more than some 0. point something of the population ,the rest of the Greek people fought to protect the refugees as well as their own homes.
Today again ,these northern civilised countries are acting the same.They ve always have.Never really changed..
It runs in their blood.
And it is not just the politician that the article calls upon.
How many Germans you can find who would openly speak about the war ?
How many do you know who would (not as a facade) feel ashamed for their fathers and grandfathers who supported the Nazi regime and acted upon its instructions at all the concentration camps and the occupied countries?.
How many have you met who are prepared to accept that they owe to Greece the war reparations for example for all the people that were executed during the 41-44 occupation not in the battlefield but civilians as a revenge for the resistance.
Most try to avoid the subject in order to avoid uncovering their real beliefs (and intentions maybe??).
To rule the world if they can...
Megalomaniacs is the word.In all,these people,like to be bad,like to be monsters .
Our only defence??To become like them is one solution,to become as bad.
I for one have decided not to go this way.But i will not stay silent.
So on to the immigration issues...
I expect to see Greece and Italy ,Spain and Portugal full of immigrants and war refugees.
And the northern countries will have a big bucket to draw their needs from ,after they ve sucked all the wealth out of these places and left them in pieces(with the cooperation of local vultures is the truth,who accepted to sell their own people in exchange for money and power).
So ,we need to stop the system that keeps them alive.
Let them live on their money.
Let them watch from afar our societies becoming humane and happy,and let them enjoy their wealth and power
Stop biting the bate.
Stop contributing to their system in any way .Stop working for them ,stop consuming their crap,stop accepting them as tourists for free....
You want to visit Greece you said?OK,pay the ticket first ,(1000 euros per week),and you are welcome to spend more money.But not as it is now.Not for free ,destroying our resources ,so that their own big tourist organisations can suck more wealth out of our country(ies).
We welcome the immigrants in .We want them.we can live with them and create.
And when these vultures come again to steal,we will be many.many more....and we will be strong.
So let them close their borders,we dont need them....
we can grow our food....they can grow ....:)...So let it be so!
a society that accepts to exist and live from stolen wealth and dont stand up and demand justice and equality for all,from their own leaders ,it means to my way of thinking they are participating.
They are as guilty as the bosses of the multinationals that corrupt in order to sell their rubbish to countries like my own,stuff we didnt need and that created the debt these vultures talk about today.
And this debt was what created the "steady" work for the northerners .Those who today ,want to keep on living ignoring the reality for the rest of us.
Siemens ,bribing politicians so they can sell useless stuff and keep the factories up north going.And the banks of course.And if one didnt accept the bribes?They would send some mercenaries (Albanians,Turks,whatever )to create problems and scare people.Terrorists they are.
Thats the truth .If you dont like it thats your problem.,It still remains true.
If you are not with us you are against us someone said...I agree.
Disconnected politicians who buy their way into parliaments all over europe.
Politicians who accept the authority of bodies unelected like the IMF,and the Commission.The world bank and the vultures of the financial system.The bankers and the blue blooded high society that still occupies wealth they didn't earn,they inherited by their fathers the thieves(i.e.all these title carrying rich european families that control the system and make us suffer so they can profit.)
We have a common enemy with the refugees.Inhumane monsters .
So no you can not expect anything from European politicians(or citizens).They are in it for the money(or the power)
We can try to eliminate them for good this time.
No place for such animals on this planet any more.
We need to stop begging them for our own rights and freedoms.we should be taking them back as we deserve to do .And claim the same for our fellow humans,those coming from war and poverty.If we can not share the world equally we should be destroying such a world in order to built a new ,real one.One for humans.Not for the yellow faces of the white collars and the ties in the financial cities of the world.
And if we dont try at least,it will bring the end closer...We are the last hope of humanity and p[eace.If we fail ,the next immigrants will not come with small boats ,need saving.They will come in armoured vehicles ,armed to the teeth...And it will be too late for all of us.They will be at the hands of the theological terrorists,the jihadists or whatever you calll them...and then ,it will be the end of the world as europeans know it today...
First we take europe then we take the world.....(Asia is to be excluded ,as they do not really know what it is i am talking about...they are still in the consumer era of humanity ,they want to buy Apple shit and gadgets ,as for the Arabs,they are kept in the dark ages by the few "families"(Saud etc)with the assistance of who else but the same system i was just talking about?.(and of course religions)....Who gives them guns?who buys their oil?...
....Even under in the mid ages..
what else?
no hope .....
Save your ass while you can...that s the moto and the reality of today....No european cares.No citizen cares.Until some war reaches them and they have to flee to save their lives..Then they will know.but we will not care by then....
our kind will be long gone by then, eliminated.
A human.
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