840.48 Refugees/1116: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:36 p.m.]
2117. Reference to my telegram No. 2108, December 13, 6 p.m.93 I called upon Bonnet at noon today. In response to my inquiry concerning the discussion with Ribbentrop on the refugee problem, he [Page 872] told me the following: He had not mentioned the matter at all to Ribbentrop on the first day of the latter’s visit December 6 because the Ambassadors and certain experts were present and he was certain that Ribbentrop would refuse to discuss it in their presence. He raised the question however in the conversation which he had alone with Ribbentrop the afternoon of December 7 in the latter’s room at the Hotel Crillon. Ribbentrop immediately replied that he refused to discuss the question officially as between Foreign Ministers. Bonnet inquired whether he would be willing to discuss it personally and unofficially. Ribbentrop agreed to this and the conversation on the subject continued for half an hour.
Ribbentrop began by stating that there were two categories of Jews—bad Jews and good Jews. All the Jews in Germany were bad Jews; they had come from the east, poverty stricken and diseased. They have wormed their way into all the important activities of German life and had become rich at the expense of the German people. There were still 800,000 of these bad Jews in Germany. On the other hand other countries such as France and Great Britain had the good Jews and it was because of this fact that these countries had failed to understand the strong feeling against the Jews in Germany and the necessity for Germany to rid itself of them.
Bonnet explained to Ribbentrop that he had no wish to mix into German internal affairs but that Germany was creating a problem for other countries by forcing them to accept people whom Ribbentrop himself had referred to as bad Jews and that the settlement of this problem would be greatly facilitated by some cooperation from Germany. Ribbentrop had thereupon admitted that the problem was an international one and had stated that he had recently heard Hitler himself refer to it as an international problem. Bonnet asked whether the German Government would be willing to facilitate the handling of this problem by alloting to the Jews forced out of Germany foreign exchange representing the value of their property confiscated in Germany. Ribbentrop replied that Germany had no foreign exchange and that the most that could be done would be to let refugees take with them in reichsmarks a percentage of the value of their property.
Bonnet said that he had then asked Ribbentrop if the German Government would agree to send a representative to meet representatives of the London Refugee Committee informally on some neutral territory to discuss the whole problem. After some discussion Ribbentrop had agreed that a representative of the German Government “who would not be a Jew” should meet in some neutral country with French, British and American representatives from the London Committee, it being understood that such a meeting would be absolutely personal and unofficial. Zurich had been mentioned as a possible [Page 873] meeting place. I asked if any date was in mind for such a meeting. Bonnet said not as yet.
Bonnet emphasized that Ribbentrop’s willingness to have Germany represented at such an unofficial meeting should be kept secret. If it leaked into the press that would be the end of the matter. He said that I had undoubtedly noticed that in the statements and information given to the press during the Ribbentrop visit no mention had been made of discussion on the refugee problem. Ribbentrop had insisted upon this stating that if any report was published that he had discussed the refugee problem he would immediately deny it. Bonnet said that upon leaving the Hotel Crillon the afternoon of December 7 he had therefore informed the press that the conversation had been about economic questions; in point of fact there had not been a word said about economic questions and the hour’s conversation which he had had with Ribbentrop on that occasion had been devoted solely to two problems: the refugees and the question of Spain.94
I remarked that I had heard stories to the effect that Ribbentrop had been pretty brutal in what he had said about the Jews, that he had stated that they would be treated as criminals in Germany and that he had refused to consider doing anything to assist in handling this problem. Bonnet said that while Ribbentrop had spoken at length “in a tone which can be readily imagined” of the “bad Jews” in Germany he had not placed them in the category of criminals and he had agreed to have Germany represented in the personal and unofficial meeting to which reference is made above. Bonnet said that he had obtained the impression that Ribbentrop personally regretted the way in which the German authorities had treated the Jewish problem recently and that Ribbentrop would be disposed to assist in so far as he could in efforts to handle this problem on a more reasonable basis.