Empty Acts: The World Responds

Germany hosts both the winter and summer Olympic Games, conferring international legitimacy on the Nazis. The Games improved the image of Nazi Germany abroad, while deflecting attention from its racist policies at home. The United States participates, overriding a 1933 vote by the Amateur Athletic Union to boycott the games. No official boycott was called in Canada. Some individual Jewish athletes, including Sammy Luftspring, the top-ranked lightweight boxer in Canada, refuse to participate.

July 6 to 15

The Evian Conference is held in France. It was convened at the initiative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to discuss the issue of increasing numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Representatives from 32 countries are present as well as 24 voluntary organizations attending as observers. In the end, little action is taken to alleviate the plight of Jews desperate to flee Germany and Austria. Most countries keep their restrictive immigration quotas unchanged.

September 29

Hitler meets with the leaders of Britain, France and Italy in Munich. Fearing another world war, the leaders try to appease Hitler by allowing him to annex the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia populated by ethnic Germans, in what is known as the “Munich Agreement”. British Prime Minister Chamberlain returns home pledging “peace in our time.”

December

Kindertransport or Children's transport was the name of a series of rescue efforts which brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940. Following the violent pogrom known as Kristallnacht, the British government eased immigration restrictions for certain categories of Jewish refugees.

May 15

The ocean liner SS St. Louis leaves Hamburg with nearly 1,000 Jewish passengers bound for Cuba. Though passengers hold Cuban visas, the ship is turned away at Havana. The United States and Canada also refuse asylum to the passengers. Of the four countries––Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and France––that finally accept the weary refugees, three soon fall to the Nazis.

May 17

A White Paper issued by British Government limits Jewish immigration to Palestine to 15,000 people per year for the next five years. It also states that future Jewish immigration requires consent from the Arab population. The British, who govern Palestine, have their own interests in the Middle East and are fearful of angering the Arab world.