840.48 Refugees/5371: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Sweden (Johnson)
724. For the Minister and Iver Olsen3 from War Refugee Board. WRB no. 3. The Legation’s efforts reported in your 908 of March 164 and 1209 of April 85 are gratifying to the War Refugee Board. It is requested that the situation in Finland be carefully watched and when first signs of danger appear for central European and Jewish refugees urge the Government of Sweden, in line with its generous action concerning Danish Jews, to carry out its informal undertaking as reported in your 908. You are instructed to take necessary steps to ensure that the proper authorities in Finland are informed that the Government of Sweden is ready to admit these people.
It is understood of course that observers in Sweden have a clearer knowledge of conditions than is had here but the Board is extremely alarmed concerning the possibility of a sudden deterioration the result of which might make impossible any action toward rescue. The Board places full reliance on you to see that precautionary measures are taken to prevent jeopardy to the lives of this group of people.
The informal undertaking reported in your 908 is noted by the Board as referring to 113 Jewish refugees only. According to the Board’s information the figure 113 refers only to refugees from Austria and Germany. The Board considers in the light of past events elsewhere that many additional persons are undoubtedly threatened with equal danger. The Board has been informed that [Page 1037] there are in Finland at present 131 Italians, 144 Poles, 475 Danes, 192 Norwegians, 172 refugees from other German-occupied countries, and about 1500 persons, 940 of whom are holding Nansen passports,6 now in a local Jewish community.
It seems apparent that local and refugee Jews as well as a number of non-Jewish refugees would also be correspondingly threatened with Jewish refugees from Austria and Germany if German influence is increased. The Board requests you to urge the Swedish Government to extend its undertaking to include all of the persons under reference. It will be noted by you that the total is less than half of the number of Danish Jews to whom Sweden has given refuge.
The Board desires to be informed concerning the result of action taken by you in this matter. [War Refugee Board.]
- Special Attaché to the Legation in Sweden on war refugee matters.↩
- Not printed; it concerned (1) Minister Johnson’s efforts in the course of conversation with a Swedish official on behalf of 113 Jewish refugees who came to Finland from Central Europe in 1938 and 1930 and had been refused permission by the Swedish Foreign Ministry to enter Sweden, and (2) the Swedish official’s promise that Sweden would admit this refugee group in case serious danger developed in Finland (840.48 Refugees/5371).↩
- Not printed.↩
- Nansen certificates (derived from the name of Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, who was designated by the League of Nations to deal with the problem of refugees) were certificates of identity issued to stateless refugees.↩