[4.7.
McDonalds quits his job - his call for "collective
action"]
[Early 1935: France
refuses work permits to Jewish refugees [also] because
of economic crisis]
McDonald's main problem was France. There, in early 1935,
French Jewish committees defending French government
policy explained why no work permits could be given
without increasing anti-Semitism in an economic crisis
situation. JDC, McDonald's main ally, was represented by
Kahn, who stated his strong disapproval of the French Jews
and argued that many people, including 1,200 children,
were literally starving in Paris - a situation that was
completely unjustifiable.
(End note 33: R16)
The partial or complete failure of his efforts finally led
McDonald to consider resigning his post. By the autumn of
1935 the French were treating McDonald "like a small
office boy whose services are no longer needed and who
should be dismissed on the spot", as Kahn put it.
(End note 34: WAC, Box 323 (c), Kahn to Warburg, 10/30/35
[30 October 1935])
[Sep 1935: McDonalds
gives up his post and suggests Norman Bentwich]
McDonald was too independent, too demanding, and too
energetic. He was moving to radical positions. In a letter
to Eleanor Roosevelt he prophesied a further great exodus
of German Jews and asked how long these matters were to be
regarded as purely of German domestic concern."
(End note 35: WAC, Box 324 (a), McDonald to Mrs.
Roosevelt, 7/24/35 [24 July 1935])
Finally in September he decided to resign, and suggested
Norman Bentwich as his successor.
(End note 36: WAC, Box 324 (a), McDonald to Warburg,
9/9/35 [9 September 1935])
[On 15 September 1935 the Third Reich is issuing the
Nuremberg Laws].
[McDonald's demission
letter: McDonalds calls for "collective action"]
His resignation was a political act. It took the form of a
letter to the secretary-general of the League of Nations
and was published in the world press either verbatim or in
fairly extensive (p.149)
form.
(End note 37: Dated 12/27/35 [27 December 1935]; see
Jewish Chronicle, 1/3/35 [3 January 1936])
Norman Bentwich, James N. Rosenberg, and Felix M. Warburg
had been fully consulted, and the letter was really
something of a collective effort. Specifically, McDonald
condemned Nazi policy toward Jews and called for
"collective action" by the League of Nations, denying that
this was an internal German problem. Practically speaking,
his demand for "friendly but firm intercession with the
German Government, by all pacific means on the part of the
League of Nations, of its Member States and other members
of the community of nations" was hardly likely to move the
Germans, even had it been accepted. But the value of the
document lay mainly in the unequivocal condemnation of
German policies emanating from the international official
charged with dealing with the refugee problem.
[British voices mean,
Hitler would give in]
McDonald's resignation had no immediate positive effect.
Some papers in Britain that published extracts from the
letter showed in their comments how far removed they were
from a realistic appreciation of the situation.
On December 10, 1935, for example, the London
Times wrote that
Germany would not be able to withstand the pressure of
public opinion, and the
News
Chronicle added that Mr. Hitler would ignore
world opinion at his peril.
[14 February 1936: New
high commissioner is Sir Neil Malcolm]
On February 14, 1936, the League of Nations designated a
retired British general, Sir Neil Malcolm, as the new high
commissioner. When asked what his policy would be, he
replied clearly and succinctly: "I have no policy, but the
policy of the League is to deal with the political and
legal status of the refugees. It has nothing to do with
the domestic policy of Germany."
(End note 38: Quoted in Morse, op. cit [While Six Million
Died; New York 1968], p. 191)
[Joint sees that the High
Commission cannot help - Joint has to help directly]
The attempt to deal with the Jewish refugee problem on an
international and humanitarian level had met with its
first failure; it constituted a severe check to JDC's
efforts of rescue and aid to German Jewry. These efforts
centered mainly. (p.150)
