340.1115A/2325: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 22—10:52 a.m.]
4154. Department’s 2809, November 17, 1 p.m. I believe that the cases specifically mentioned in the Department’s telegram under reference fall within the category of those rare exceptions mentioned in my 3181, August 14, 2 p.m.47 Of the three persons concerned one was an 11-year-old child; a second was an elderly lady and what is more, a Jewess, which places her in a special category in the view of the German authorities. In neither of these two cases did the Embassy have anything to do with the procuring of the exit visas. In the third case the Embassy has interceded with the Foreign Office but has as yet had no indication that its intercession was successful.
[Page 431]It is difficult for this Embassy to get any clear picture of what is happening in this respect. Only a small percentage of the Americans endeavoring to leave Germany and occupied territories bring their difficulties individually to the Embassy’s attention and in cases where they do succeed in obtaining exit visas they usually leave the country as fast as they can, without bothering to inform the Embassy of what has happened. Even in cases where the Embassy intercedes in people’s behalf it does not always know when or whether they receive their visas.
Since the closing of the Consulates, the Embassy has interceded in behalf of slightly over 100 applicants. Fourteen of these have to our knowledge received exit visas. Most of these 14, however, are persons who have gone through irregular channels to obtain their visas in addition to the approaches made by this Embassy. Thus I see no grounds, in the light of the Embassy’s experience, to modify the statement made in my telegram under reference to the effect that the German authorities are not inclined to grant exit permits except in rare cases.
I must stress that the handling of these matters by the German authorities, while it may reflect in its broader aspect a reluctance to let any great proportion of American citizens leave these territories at the present time, does not in its detailed application conform to any set of laws or rules or to any well-defined system. The workings of the German administrative apparatus have recently become extremely devious, obscure and—in matters such as the control of foreigners—unsympathetic. The authorities concerned are many and various. Their powers are arbitrary and poorly coordinated. Favoritism and political pressure play a prominent part in their activities.
Persons who are able to make adroit use of one or another of these factors are very often able to get visas while other persons who have gone through the regular channels wait in vain. A great deal lies within the discretion of individual officials whose own position in the hierarchy [is?] obscure to most outsiders and who cannot be approached through regular channels.
Altogether, therefore, I should say that cases such as those mentioned in Department’s telegram under reference and other cases where persons are granted exit permits represent neither a change in policy on the part of the German authorities nor the result of intercession by the Embassy but exceptions made on the initiative of individual German authorities not necessarily because the cases appear meritorious as we understand the term but simply because the applicants concerned have found means to persuade or influence individual officials into issuing the permits. I am afraid that it would be exceedingly difficult to work out with the German Government any general arrangement [Page 432] for making exceptions in favor of certain applicants for exit visas. The chaotic fashion in which these matters are handled here and the obvious disregard of Gestapo and party circles for the foreign news indicate that it would be hard to arrive at such an arrangement and harder still to implement it.48 I believe that the chances would be better if the cases in which we are particularly interested were to be approached on a perfectly cold-blooded basis and individual Germans proposed for release against individual Americans.