Office of the Historian

840.48 Refugees/1650: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State

London, June 6, 1939—6 p.m.
[Received June 6—2:55 p.m.]

784. From Pell.

1.
Winterton, Emerson, officials of the Foreign Office, Treasury, and Committee met Wohlthat, who was accompanied by Abshagen,54 at my house at lunch today.
2.
Wohlthat said that the decrees setting up the Internal Trust in Germany, as well as the Central Jewish organization, were now in the hands of the Chancellor’s office and might be signed by Hitler any day.
3.
The decree setting up the trust will authorize Winterton, when certain conditions are fulfilled on the outside, to begin setting a certain proportion of existing Jewish wealth aside, in the form of real and personal property and shares, for the use of the trust. It is now the intention of the German authorities to ask for the contributions to the trust from the Jewish community in installments, not over five, extending over the 3 to 5 year period. Wohlthat said that the installments would be substantial since panic liquidation of Jewish property had subsided since last autumn and forced liquidation had been suspended.
4.
The conclusion had been reached to draw on this property in installments in order not to increase the difficulties of the Central Jewish organization in maintaining the impoverished section of the Jewish community in the Reich and to avoid depressing the German markets.
5.
Wohlthat said that he would call for the first installment when he was satisfied that those on the outside who were engaged in emigrating Jews, including the Intergovernmental Committee and the private financial interests, were seriously preparing settlement projects. For instance, when he was assured in his own mind that a project had been formulated, say, for the settlement of people in substantial numbers in British Guiana and the Dominican Republic, that the financing of these projects was guaranteed by the private interests, and that wage earners were actually moving to the places of settlement, Wohlthat would call for contributions of a certain proportion of the property of the Jewish community which would be applied to the transportation of persons to places of settlement and to the equipping of the settlement through the intermediary of the outside purchasing agency. Wohlthat said that it was immaterial to the German authorities what [Page 116] form the outside corporation or foundation might take as long as it was really instrumental in furthering settlement projects. He made no absolute condition as to the amount of capitalization of the outside body, but insisted again and again that its importance would lie in financing emigration and settlement, and in consequence it would require substantially more than a nominal capitalization. He emphasized that he could not possibly set the machinery of the trust in motion unless he could say to the various ministers involved that it was actually contributing to emigration and that the proceedings from it would be applied directly to settlement projects.
6.
Wohlthat said it would be useful to him to be kept informed from month to month as to the progress of the settlement projects and the financing of them. He said that in presenting his case to the ministers it would not be necessary for him to say that capital in such and such an amount had actually been put up; he would merely have to say that the financing of the project had been guaranteed by the private financing interests.
7.
Emerson called Wohlthat’s attention to the fact that migration to places of settlement must include individuals from countries of refuge as well as from the country of origin in order to relieve pressure which was becoming serious in refuge countries. Wohlthat acknowledged this, and said it was a further argument for proceeding rapidly with the organization of places of settlement.
8.
Wohlthat has agreed to meet Jewish leaders such as Rothschild and Bearstead at my house this evening. [Pell.]
Kennedy
  1. Karl Heinz Abshagen, German newspaper correspondent.↩