710 Consultation 3 (A)/740c: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Uruguay (Dawson)
297. For Sanders.39 There are in German and German-occupied territory a few thousand individuals identified with European racial and political minority groups who nevertheless possess one or another type of document or certificate, including passports and visas, issued in the name of non-European states, mainly certain American Republics. Despite circumstances which have cast doubt on the authenticity of these documents or the regularity of their issuance, the Germans have heretofore kept most of these individuals in internment camps. In according them this relatively favorable treatment, the Germans appear to have looked toward the possibility of exchanging them for German nationals abroad. In 1942, some 65 such individuals holding Palestine documents were exchanged for Germans in Palestine, but further operations under this arrangement failed because Germans remaining in Palestine declined repatriation. The only substantial source of available Germans now is the Western Hemisphere.
It has not been feasible to include these individuals in recent German-American Republics exchanges, because, in accord with Resolution XX,40 those exchanges have been limited to very small numbers of bona fide American nationals nominated by their governments, and because various American Republics had hesitated to recognize the documentation issued in their names.
In this situation, the German Government, apparently concluding that the governments concerned do not intend to protect these individuals or accept them for exchange purposes, has now manifested its intention to deprive them of their protected status and to subject them to the brutal measures uniformly applied to such minorities, such as slave labor and extermination. Authoritative sources advise that of late the Germans have intensified their persecution of such groups, that their immediate or gradual annihilation is almost certain, and that their lives may be safeguarded only by the most urgent and positive steps. The official steps required are positive assurances to [Page 1052] Germany on behalf of the governments concerned that their documentation must be honored, followed by prompt exchange proposals on a collective basis.
The War Refugee Board and the Department have already procured most of the assurances required concerning documentation, and the Department is prepared to initiate exchange proposals. Furthermore, the Board, in cooperation with other official and humanitarian agencies, is prepared to underwrite all exchange expenses and to arrange and finance safe havens elsewhere to the extent that any individual rescued is not admissible to the country concerned.
Consideration of this subject by the Committee is desirable because the prospective exchange proposals would depart from or severely strain the pertinent strict standards established in Resolution XX. Since its adoption, the security requirements reflected by those standards have declined substantially in importance. In any event, present security needs can be met since Germans not capable of much contribution to enemy war effort are available and since adequate security can be exercised over individuals received. Committee action will also emphasize multilateral character of problem and of steps necessary for its effective solution.
Accordingly, you should present the problem to the Committee with a view to its immediate adoption of a resolution recommending to the governments that they require their documentation to be honored and that they authorize or support exchange proposals in their behalf to the humanitarian ends and under the security safeguards described above. A suggested draft resolution will be cabled to you promptly. You should draft a brief exposition along the lines stated, treating the problem as inter-American in character, and avoiding so far as possible direct reference to United States or War Refugee Board and extensive initiative they have already taken.
- William Sanders, American member of Emergency Advisory Committee for Political Defense, meeting at Montevideo. For correspondence concerning this meeting, see vol. vii, pp. 1 ff.↩
- Concerning the detention and expulsion of dangerous Axis nationals; for text, see Emergency Advisory Committee for Political Defense, Annual Report, July 1943 (Montevideo, 1943), p. 73.↩