Hope for US leadership
A new initiative for the refugees begins to take shape
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Washington, D.C.
On April 4, 1938, Arthur Sweetser, a member of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, met with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the meeting, the two discussed the situation of German and Austrian Jews urgently seeking ways to emigrate. Roosevelt brought up the idea of an international conference. His reasoning was simple: only under determined US leadership could the problem be solved and other nations be convinced to take in Jewish refugees. It remains disputed whether the idea of a joint debate on the situation of the Jews under the Nazi regime came from Roosevelt himself or rather from high-ranking State Department officials.
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SOURCE
Institution:
Collection:
President Franklin Roosevelt, 1938. Harris and Ewing Photograph Collection, Library of Congress.
Original:
LC-H21- C-820 (P&P)
