Essay Database

The Evian Conference was called by President Roosevelt in 1938. The purpose of the conference was to fix the refugee problem and save Jewish lives. This did not occur, because of many contributing factors. Many questions arose surrounding this failure, from how each nation reacted, to whether or not anti-Semitism was present, affecting the outcome of negotiations. But what is possibly the hardest to answer was what Roosevelt’s true intentions were? Was he truly acting …

…is unclear what side Roosevelt was on, but judging from the rest of his actions during this period, it might be safe to say that he truly never intended the conference to be a success. Maybe the best explanation can be summed up in a joke that goes “What do you do, if you don’t really want to do anything, but you want to look like you’re doing something? You call a conference.”