Evian Conference and Hispaniola
Barbara Bandler Steinmetz
It seems to the Bandlers—and hundreds of thousands of other dispossessed Jews fleeing Nazism—that the entire world has turned its back on them since the 1938 Evian Conference. At that prewar meeting initiated by President Franklin Roosevelt to deal with the refugee crisis, the 32 participating nations came to no agreement to admit Jewish evacuees as a humanitarian gesture. Only a single small nation halfway round the world offered to provide sanctuary for a large number of Jewish refugees: the Dominican Republic on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
Political cartoon by Sidney 'George' Strube, entitled, "Will the Evian Conference guide him to freedom?" that was published in the Sunday, July 3, 1938 edition of The New York Times.
Map of the Caribbean. The island of Hispaniola (enlarged) lies between Cuba and Puerto Rico and is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Holocaust Awareness Institute
Rafael Trujillo, Local press photograph. 1933. Copyright expired.
Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
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Military strongman Rafael Trujillo has ruled the Dominican Republic for decades. Under General Trujillo’s bloody reign, state-sponsored violence has destroyed nearly all internal political opposition. The dictator can do as he pleases, and one of his whims is to offer immigrants an open door. Trujillo believes that his willingness to accept up to 100,000 Jewish refugees will deflect American attention from his human rights abuses against neighboring Haiti, and help to develop his country’s weak economy. Racism also plays a key role in Trujillo’s generosity. Though biracial himself, the dictator holds crude racist notions. He believes that white bloodlines are superior to Black, and so he encourages Jews and other Europeans to settle in the Dominican Republic in an effort to blanquear—“whiten”—the population. Ironically, Jews who are victimized by racial terror under Nazism find a haven under General Trujillo, who endorses a different kind of racial madness.
Trujillo’s government enters into negotiations with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a prominent humanitarian organization, and signs an agreement on January 30, 1940. The document formalizes the first wave of Jewish immigration to a 26,000 acre agricultural settlement in Sosúa, on the northern coast of the island. Alexander learns of these developments in Lisbon, and by mid-1941 he and his family are being considered for possible admission. Those in charge of Sosúa hope to people the settlement with idealistic young Jews who possess agricultural experience. According to Barbara, her father “didn’t know one end of a shovel from another—but he knew how to run a kitchen.” Fortunately, the Bandlers make the cut and are granted entry.
Transcript
Barbara: And Trujillo had previous experience with Jews because he had from Curacao. So he knew that Jews, when you invite Jews into a country, that they are participators, that they will help with the economy of the country. And so he had a lot of reasons for opening his doors. But regardless, he did open them. Unfortunately, it took a long time to set up the bureaucratic mechanism by which the Jews could actually leave Europe and get to the Dominican Republic. For that purpose, an organization was set up by the Joint Distribution Committee of the Jewish Welfare Federation and of UJA. And-- and they a-- they had an agricultural division. And they went to the Dominican Republic. By the time they looked over the prospects for the land and made their recommendations as to how this was all going to happen, it took a long time, frankly. And it wasn't until 1940 that an actual agreement was--was signed by the parties of the Dominican Republic and the Joint Distribution Committee, the agricultural division. And for that purpose, a-- an organization was set up specifically for the Dominican Republic, and it was called the Dominican Republic Resettlement Association [sic]. And the acronym is DORSA. And they found someone to be the head of DORSA. It was a man who had a great deal of agricultural experience, immigrant experience, in the Crimea. And his name was Rosen. And he had an idea that he was going to set up a kibbutz-type operation in the Dominican Republic.
Now the piece of land that was given to the Jews by Trujillo--and-- and there's a-- there were a lot of negotiations about it-- was a rather rocky, [PAUSES FOR 3 SECONDS] untillable kind of land. It was-- it was in the tropics. It-- it was-- it was a very hard piece of property to farm. But nevertheless, this was the property that was given to the Jews. And so they were going to do something with it. But Mr. Rosen really thought that-- that he would set up a-- a kibbutz-type of situation. And so what he was looking for was Jews that had agricultural experience. And that immediately eliminated most of the Jews that were left in Lisbon because they were not the farmers. They were the doctors and the lawyers and the-- and the business people and the accountants. And frankly, they didn't know one end of a shovel from the other. But-- but my father obviously applied for entry into the Dominican Republic. And he said of course he had agricultural experience. He was a food handler. And of course, he may not have told them that. But he did tell them that they had agricultural experience. And my mother, who was a chemist, her-- her area of specialty was casein, which is a milk product. And so they seemed like they were going to be very likely candidates. And somehow or other, they-- they did get a visa to go to the Dominican Republic. And—
Interviewer: Did your parents tell you that you were going to be going?
Barbara: You know, I don't even know that. I don't even know that. I know this much, that the Jews that did go had absolutely no idea what to anticipate when they went to the Dominican Republic. First of all, these were European Jews coming out of a temperate climate. The Dominican Republic is in the tropics. So they just-- I think they would have signed on to go to the moon. They just wanted to get out of Europe. And the Dominican Republic also was fairly close to the United States. So there seemed to be a glimmer of hope somewhere down the road that they would get to America.
"I think they would have signed on to go to the moon. They just wanted to get out of Europe."
USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, Interview 38619
Letter from DORSA to Jewish refugees approved for immigration to the Dominican Republic explaining the terms of their resettlement. June 20, 1941.
Courtesy of Barbara Bandler Steinmetz
Barbara Bandler Steinmetz' Timeline
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Rome-Berlin Axis Agreement
Italy, under fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, concludes an alliance with Germany's Hitler. Mussolini later issues anti-Jewish legislation and enforces persecution of Italian Jewish community.
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Barbara Bandler is born in Győr, Hungary
Her parents, Margit and Alexander Bandler, are Hungarian citizens but live in Italy, where Alexander owns a hotel on the Adriatic island of Lussinpiccolo, just off the coast of what is today Croatia. They return to Italy soon after Barbara’s birth
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Publication of the “Race Manifesto” in Italy
Published anonymously but drawn up by a scholar with close ties to the Fascist government, the article outlines in ten clauses a theoretical framework for the concept of race in Fascist Italy, according to which Italians are essentially Aryan and Jews do not belong to the Italian race.
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Italy adopts antisemitic laws
Italy adopts a series of antisemitic “Race Laws.” A September 5, 1938 law prohibits Jews from studying or teaching at Italian public schools and universities. A September 7, 1938 law retroactively annuls Italian citizenship granted to Jewish immigrants to Italy after 1919 and revokes permanent residency in Italy for foreign Jews, requiring them to leave the country within six months. Like the Nuremberg Race Laws and other Nazi legislation, additional laws prohibits marriage between Jews and “Aryans,” define who is Jewish, and require all Italian Jews to register, as well as placing restrictions on professional activities and business ownership.
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Italy and Germany sign the “Pact of Steel”
Expanding on the alliance between the two countries since the Rome-Berlin Axis of October 1936, in the “Pact of Steel” (officially the Pact of Friendship and Alliance) Italy and Germany agree to military cooperation and mutual defense. Despite this agreement, Italy remains neutral during the first year of the war, only entering the war as Germany’s ally in June 1940.
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Rafael Trujillo and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee sign an agreement
The document formalized the first wave of Jewish immigration to a 26,000 acre agricultural settlement in Sosúa, on the northern coast of Hispaniola. The New York City-based American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee set up a separate arm, the Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA), to establish Sosúa as an agricultural community.
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France formally surrenders to Nazi Germany
Much of France falls to Nazi domination. Parts of southern France are governed by a Nazi collaborator government headed by Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, called the "Vichy" regime after its capital.
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Vichy France enacts anti-Jewish legislation
The collaborationist Vichy government enacts a series of anti-Jewish laws in accordance with Nazi policy.
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Germany orders closure of US diplomatic missions
After the US State Department orders the closure of German consulates in the United States because German diplomats are suspected of spying, Germany and Italy order all American consulates in Axis-occupied Europe to cease operation, closing the door for refugees fleeing Nazi persecution to apply for immigration to the United States.
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Bandlers set sail for the Dominican Republic
Aboard the Portuguese ship Nyassa, the family sail for the Caribbean, making a stop at Ellis Island on the way.
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DORSA establishes a hotel in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic for new Jewish settlers
Disease, fatigue, poor sanitation, the brutal sun, and the emotional distress of dislocation all take their toll on the island’s new Jewish residents. DORSA organizers recognize the need to provide ailing refugees with a place to recuperate from their exertions, and ask Alexander and Margit Bandler to manage the refuge.
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The Battle of the Caribbean
In an attempt to disrupt the Allied supply of oil and other material by targeting their points of origin in the Caribbean, German and Italian submarines torpedoed 263 ships in the Caribbean, including two Dominican ships. The S. S. Presidente Trujillo and the San Rafael, both named by the Dominican president after himself, were sunk, and 25 crew members were killed.
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Allies denounce Nazi mass murder of Jews
Reports of the Nazi plan to murder all of the Jewish people in Europe begin to circulate in the second half of 1942 and are widely reported in U.S. newspapers in late November. On December 17 1942, the Allied governments denounce the mass murder of European Jews under Nazi control. Though Nazi crimes are now publicized, Allied forces do not target Nazi killing installations or prioritize the rescue of Jews.
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Ads for Margit Bandler’s cosmetics company appear in American Jewish newspapers
Lori (Elenor) Mayer, one of Margit’s childhood friends who had immigrated to Boston in the mid-1930s, sees the advertisement in 1945, and sends a letter to Margit in Jarabacoa. Lori and her husband, Eugene, later secure work visas for the Bandlers to enter the U.S.
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Nazis install new fascist government in Hungary
Nazis arrest Hungarian leader Miklos Horthy and install a new government under Ferenc Szalasi, leader of the fascist and radically antisemitic Arrow Cross Party.
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Mass executions of Budapest Jews
Between December 1944 and January 1945, approximately 20,000 Jews from Budapest's ghetto are taken to the banks of the Danube, where they are murdered and their bodies thrown into the river.
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Soviet forces liberate Budapest
After nearly two months, Soviet forces succeed in liberating Budapest from Nazi and Hungarian fascist control. Approximately 100,000 Jews survive, mostly thanks to protections offered by foreign diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg.
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Bandler family leaves the Dominican Republic for the U.S.
With little notice, Barbara boards a bus to Santo Domingo, then a plane to Miami, FL, then another bus to Boston, MA where she and her family begin their new American life.
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Sosúa project dwindles
By the late 1940s, only 275 settlers remain in Sosúa, which had once been home to many hundreds more refugees. DORSA’s experiment under Trujillo never becomes a profitable agricultural settlement, though a successful dairy cooperative founded by Jewish immigrants flourishes there for decades.
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Hungarian People's Republic established
Soviet forces had remained in Hungary after liberating the country from Nazi occupation in 1944. After the war, Hungary had held democratic elections, but under Soviet influence the Communists successively neutralized all other parties until, in 1949, voters were presented with ballots with only one party list. The newly elected Communist legislature adopted a new, Soviet-style constitution and became a Soviet satellite.
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Barbara becomes a U.S. citizen
Just a few months before her 16th birthday, Barbara takes the oath to become a United States citizen.
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Barbara Bandler graduates high school
She and her boyfriend, Howard Steinmetz, make plans to wed, but her father insists she complete her college education before marrying. The two reach an agreement, and Barbara and Howard are married in 1956, after Barbara is accepted to college.
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Hungarian Revolution of 1956
Student demonstrations in Budapest calling for political and social reforms grow into a broad-based, nationwide popular uprising against the Soviet-backed government of the Hungarian People's Republic. Despite the movement's initial success, the revolution is brutally crushed by Soviet military intervention. Some 200,000 people flee the country in the course of the revolution.
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Rafael Trujillo assassinated
Trujillo’s reign grows notoriously bloody throughout the 1950s, though his repression is not felt in Sosúa. Still, political unrest, economic woes, and scandal plague the General’s rule. In May 1961, the embattled dictator is assassinated by a group of conspirators who ambushed his turquoise Chevrolet Bel Air. Trujillo’s death sets off a period of political instability in the Dominican Republic that drives many of the few remaining Jewish residents to emigrate.
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Barbara and Howard move to Boulder, CO
After vacationing in Colorado for decades, the pair finally decide to settle permanently.