March 1, 1943 The USA Restricts Entry of Jewish Refugees

The strategy was for Taylor to conduct preliminary discussions with Sumner Welles and other State Department officials. These talks were to be based on the Joint Emergency Committee’s specific rescue proposal, a program that closely followed the eleven-point list that came out of the March 1 Madison Square Garden mass meeting. But the day before Taylor was to begin his discussion, a meeting of the Joint Emergency Committee learned of more alarming reports just received from overseas. One carried information from Geneva:

‘Massacres now reaching catastrophic climax particularly Poland also deportations Bulgarian Rumanian Jews already begun. European Jewry disappearing while no single organized rescue measure yet taken.’

Another cablegram disclosed that 8,000 Bulgarian Jews had already been deported. Every message stressed the absolute need for rapid and extraordinary action.

Source: Wyman, David. The Abandonment of the Jews. P 96.