[D.] The
refugees
[6.8. France 1938 against Jewish refugees -
prison and concentration camps]
[1937: 7,000 German
Jewish refugees in France - 2,500 of them needy]
In France, the Austrian disaster evoked a harsh reaction
on the part of the government. There were not many
refugees in France to start with: at the end of 1937 about
7,000 German Jews lived in France, of whom 2,500 had to be
supported.
(End note 44: R28, fortnightly digest, 10/15/37 [15
October 1937])
[There are also Jewish refugees from other countries in
France, sometimes for more than 10 years].
[2 March 1938: France: Law for farming for Jewish
refugees in project - no realization]
But in early 1938, even before the Anschluss, French
policy hardened. This was the period of the final collapse
of the Popular Front movement and the rise of conservative
forces. On March 2 there was a French government proposal
to settle 10,000 refugees as agricultural laborers. Those
who refused to be settled in this manner would be
expelled. The Consistoire Centrale, the main religious
authority of French Jewry, agreed in principle that Jews
who disobeyed the government's orders should not stay in
France.
To avoid disaster, Kahn for JDC and Baron Robert de
Rothschild for French Jewry suggested that a sum of 3 mio.
francs be set aside for this project. The whole question
was aired at a March 27, 1938, meeting of all Jewish
organizations, French and non-French, working in France.
At that meeting and again in April, the scheme was
enlarged to a 20 mio. franc project; the intent was to
settle 12-15,000 refugees on French lands. Nothing came of
it. In the end the French government decided that it did
not want to have refugee Jews settle on French soil.
[End of March 1938:
France: Proposal by Serre that Jews have to collect
money for returning the Jewish refugees to NS Germany -
no majority in the parliament]
However, at the March meeting, two weeks after the
Anschluss [end of March], a much more dangerous French
demand was made known: Philippe Serre, French
undersecretary of state for immigration, demanded that the
Jews in France collect money for the government, to cover
the expense of forcible repatriation of refugees to
Germany. Marc Jarblum, a Zionist and the leader of the
Fédération des Sociétés Juives, the main organization of
East European Jews in France, had told Serre that no
Jewish support should be expected for such a proposal.
Kahn for JDC and Edouard Oungre for HICEM had given
similar answers. But the chairman of the (p.237)
meeting, Prof. William Oualid of the Consistoire,
demurred: it was "unwise to give a point-blank refusal";
he proposed that the Jews participate in the cost of
repatriation when it was impossible "to obtain a favorable
solution". Let it be said to the credit of that particular
meeting that Oualid's suggestion failed to get majority
approval.
(End note 45: R62, meeting in Paris of 3/27/38 [27 March
1938])
[2 May 1938: France:
Government decree to define Jewish refugees as criminals
- 1 month prison - then 6 months prison]
As the refugees from Austria began to pour in, French
reaction stiffened even further. On May 2, 1938, the
government decreed that all refugees who could not move to
other countries and could not get permission to stay in
France would henceforth be treated as criminals. Judges
were instructed to hand down sentences of
one month's imprisonment
to such refugees. If after that month the person concerned
still could not find another country of refuge within a
week of his release from prison, he was to be
put in jail for another six
months. Children of such "recalcitrant" parents
were to be placed in charitable homes.
On October 12, 1938, further instructions were issued to
the effect that Austrian refugees in particular should be
sent back. They were given four days in which to leave
France, and if they did not do so, they were
subject to imprisonment for
many months.
(End note 46: R47, Comité pour la Défense des Israélites
en Europe Centrale et Orientale, 3/24/39 [24 March 1939])
[March 1938: France:
Polish Jewish refugees are deprived of citizenship]
These draconian measures hit not only refugees from
Germany and Austria [which was Germany now], but also
Polish Jews who were deprived of their citizenship by a
Polish decree of March 1938.
(End note 47: See below in the text, p. 243)
These people, some of whom had been living in France for
ten years or more, were now suddenly subject to arrest and
imprisonment because a country, which the younger ones
among them had not even seen, had withdrawn its technical
protection from them.
[12 Nov 1938: France:
Jail sentence is changed into concentration camp
sentence]
Finally, on November 12 an amendment to the earlier
decrees was published, and the imprisonment was changed
into forced residence. Of course, judges were free to
assign refugees to closed camps rather than some village
or town. Jewish refugees began to be interned in French
concentration camps even prior to the Nazi onslaught on
France; this internment ultimately contributed to a
significant degree to the mass murder of Jews in France by
the Germans. (p.238)
[JDC with European seat
in France]
JDC did not have much choice in France; this was the seat
of its European office, and Kahn had to support the
refugees to the best of JDC's limited ability.
[June-Oct 1938: German
Jewish refugees in France: Rising Figures - JDC funds -
HICEM looking for other countries - hopes on ICR for an
agreement with the Third Reich]
The numbers were growing throughout 1938, but in the
summer and autumn they were still manageable. In early
1938 there were 10,000 refugees in France; this was to
increase to 25,000 in December.
JDC spent $ 130,884 in France in that year, most of it
through different French Jewish organizations in support
of various aspects of refugee work; it also spent money
through HICEM, which was trying to find places of
settlement for the refugees. This was no easy task,
because as a result of the Evian Conference most
governments adopted a "wait and see" attitude. "Many
countries are said to have closed their doors in the
expectation that through the establishment of the
Winterton-Rublee committee, refugees from Germany might
bring some money with them."
(End note 48: Morris D. Waldman: Nor by Power; New York,
1955, p. 82, quoting a report to the American Jewish
Committee, 11/6/38 [6 November 1938])
This, of course, was preferable to an influx of destitute
refugees. JDC leaders saw that they had to do everything
in their power to enable the newly established ICR reach
an agreement with the Germans.
