800.4016 DP/10–945
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Aide-Mémoire
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom have considered with close attention the report of Mr. Earl Harrison to President Truman on the situation of Jewish displaced persons in Germany, and their views on certain aspects of this report were communicated to the Department of State in a letter addressed to Mr. H. Freeman Matthews by Mr. Makins on 6th October.
- 2.
- Lord Halifax99 is now instructed to draw the special attention of the Department of State to Mr. Harrison’s recommendation that Jewish displaced persons (including persecuted German Jews) should be regarded as non-repatriable and segregated on a racial basis forthwith, pending their removal to Palestine or to some other destination outside Europe.
- 3.
- It is understood that this recommendation has now been put into effect in the United States zone in Germany.
- 4.
- His Majesty’s Government cannot but view the adoption of this policy with grave concern. It appears to them to suggest that there is no future in Europe for persons of the Jewish race, and to be open to serious objection at a time when conditions throughout Europe are still chaotic and when the effect of anti-Semitic policy, sedulously fostered by the Nazis, has not yet been undone. In the judgment of His Majesty’s Government it might be regarded, by implication, as conceding the contention of the Nazi regime that there should be no place for Jews in Europe.
- 5.
- Furthermore, this policy would undoubtedly be interpreted as an indication that the United States and the United Kingdom were ready to reverse the decision reached with so much difficulty at the recent UNRRA Council, to the effect that displaced persons must be given time in which to decide freely, and after full information as to the conditions which were likely to await them in their former homes, whether to return there or not. It would oblige them to make an irrevocable decision now on this point, at a time when conditions do not exist in which a balanced judgment can be formed.
- 6.
- The United States Government and His Majesty’s Government would then be faced with the problem of an increased number of displaced persons who will ultimately have to be resettled, at a time when there is an urgent need for displaced persons, Jews no less than Gentiles, to return home (unless the objection in any given case is overriding) and assist in the reconstruction of their native lands, where they all have their part to play. His Majesty’s Government [Page 1196] therefore consider that the efforts of the two governments would more advantageously be directed to the creation of conditions in which Jewish displaced persons will themselves feel it natural and right to go home rather than to admit at this stage that such conditions are impossible to create. Moreover, the Jews are not the only persecuted group. German Christians have, in many cases, suffered almost as badly.
- 7.
- His Majesty’s Government feel strongly that the foregoing considerations are fundamental to the solution of this problem and that Mr. Harrison has not sufficiently taken them into account. They explain the reasons for which His Majesty’s Government feel obliged, in any event, to maintain the present policy in the British zone.
- 8.
- Lord Halifax has therefore been instructed to urge strongly that the decision to segregate the Jews in the United States zone in Germany should be re-examined. It is clear that a divergence of policy between the two zones in this respect would be most unfortunate, and this point has indeed already been taken by the European Regional Office of UNRRA, which feels that it would be gravely embarrassed if it were required to follow conflicting policies in Germany.
- 9.
- In conclusion, His Majesty’s Government consider, against the background to which attention has here been drawn, that the issue of the wholesale removal of European Jews to Palestine, also raised by Mr. Harrison, may not unfairly be regarded as begging a question, that is far more complex than his report would suggest. But the difficulties regarding the proposed immigration to Palestine were set forth in the Prime Minister’s personal message to the President No. 9 of the 17th [16th] of September1 and they are therefore not restated in the present communication.
Washington, October 9,
1945.