Nadene Goldfoot
Not until after WWI was the protection of refugees first recognized as an international responsibility. Millions of people found themselves as refugees and had to leave their country because of Political, racial or religious persecutions.
In 1921, Dr. Fridtjot Nansen was appointed by the League of Nations as high commissioner for Russian and Armenian refugees.He created an identity certificate and a travel document for refugees. This was called the Nansen passport.
The protection of refugees was continued by the Nansen Office of the League of Nations after his death. In 1933 an international convention was held to prescribe their status. Nazi persecutions were happening in this year causing another high commissioner of the League to be appointed for Jewish and other refugees from Germany.
James G. MacDonald, the first high commissioner, resigned after 2 years because of inadequate action by the members of the League. Even his successor was restricted to the juridical protection of refugees.
In 1938, President Roosevelt of the USA convened a conference of government representatives at Evian to help with the emigration and resettlement of refugees.
By 1939, a most disastrous year for German Jews, the high commissioner for German refugees became director of the inter-governmental committee and responsible for all refugees under the protection of the League. This is when Werner Oster, age 22, German Jew, left Germany but only because my great uncle had signed a paper to sponsor him in the USA. He got my father to employ him, and he later became my uncle. It was very expensive for Werner to be able to leave Germany, costing his parents a lot of money. He immigrated on ship SS Washington; costs $M350. to New York, then Texas.
His father had served in the German army and was a decorated soldier in the service of the Kaiser Wilhelm II, but was forced to scrub the streets because he was a Jew. Many wore their uniforms while doing this to show people they had been good citizens. Remember this fact when you feel secure in the USA. Jews had lived in Germany since before 70 CE. As it turns out, the Kaiser was anti-Semitic. He was for ""regular international all-worlds pogrom à la Russe" as "the best cure" and further believed that Jews were a "nuisance that humanity must get rid of some way or other." " I believe the best thing would be gas!"he said." So much for being a patriotic soldier in Germany!
During WWII, which commenced in Europe at about this time, the high commissioner worked to relieve refugees who were outside the Nazi occupied territories and improve the conditions of emigration.
The war was over by 1947 when the League office and the committee were replaced by an arm of the United Nations. It was the International Refugee Organization which was a non-permanent specialized agency.
When Israel announced its birth after gaining the approval of the League of Nations and the United Nations again on May 14, 1948 and was summarily attacked on all sides by the Arabs, there became the problem of Arab refugees who had left their homes at the advice of their leaders who were attacking Israel. The leaders wanted them out of the way of the barrage of bullets and ammunition. They figured they would win quickly and the Arabs could then move into the Jews' homes if they wanted to. Refugees concentrated themselves into Jordan and the Gaza Strip at this time. They now became the concern of a non-permanent specialized agency of the UN-UNRWA- United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
The UNWRA definition of Palestinian refugees is "
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| UNRWA Building in Gaza City |
Not until after WWI was the protection of refugees first recognized as an international responsibility. Millions of people found themselves as refugees and had to leave their country because of Political, racial or religious persecutions.
The protection of refugees was continued by the Nansen Office of the League of Nations after his death. In 1933 an international convention was held to prescribe their status. Nazi persecutions were happening in this year causing another high commissioner of the League to be appointed for Jewish and other refugees from Germany.
James G. MacDonald, the first high commissioner, resigned after 2 years because of inadequate action by the members of the League. Even his successor was restricted to the juridical protection of refugees.
By 1939, a most disastrous year for German Jews, the high commissioner for German refugees became director of the inter-governmental committee and responsible for all refugees under the protection of the League. This is when Werner Oster, age 22, German Jew, left Germany but only because my great uncle had signed a paper to sponsor him in the USA. He got my father to employ him, and he later became my uncle. It was very expensive for Werner to be able to leave Germany, costing his parents a lot of money. He immigrated on ship SS Washington; costs $M350. to New York, then Texas.
His father had served in the German army and was a decorated soldier in the service of the Kaiser Wilhelm II, but was forced to scrub the streets because he was a Jew. Many wore their uniforms while doing this to show people they had been good citizens. Remember this fact when you feel secure in the USA. Jews had lived in Germany since before 70 CE. As it turns out, the Kaiser was anti-Semitic. He was for ""regular international all-worlds pogrom à la Russe" as "the best cure" and further believed that Jews were a "nuisance that humanity must get rid of some way or other." " I believe the best thing would be gas!"he said." So much for being a patriotic soldier in Germany!
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| 1941 Anti-Semitic Germany needed little prodding from Haj Amin al-Husseini to keep Jews out of Palestine. They thought up the "Final Solution." |
During WWII, which commenced in Europe at about this time, the high commissioner worked to relieve refugees who were outside the Nazi occupied territories and improve the conditions of emigration.
The war was over by 1947 when the League office and the committee were replaced by an arm of the United Nations. It was the International Refugee Organization which was a non-permanent specialized agency.
When Israel announced its birth after gaining the approval of the League of Nations and the United Nations again on May 14, 1948 and was summarily attacked on all sides by the Arabs, there became the problem of Arab refugees who had left their homes at the advice of their leaders who were attacking Israel. The leaders wanted them out of the way of the barrage of bullets and ammunition. They figured they would win quickly and the Arabs could then move into the Jews' homes if they wanted to. Refugees concentrated themselves into Jordan and the Gaza Strip at this time. They now became the concern of a non-permanent specialized agency of the UN-UNRWA- United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
A census taken in Palestine in 1945 found only 756,000 permanent Arab residents in what was to become Israel. On November 30, 1947, the date the UN voted for partition, the total was 809,100. The government of Israel took a census in 1949 and counted 160,000 Arabs living in the country after the war. This means 650,000 Palestinian Arabs had become refugees. A report by the UN Mediator on Palestine arrived at an even lower figure--472,000.
Syria was made up of 22,505,000 people before the Arab Spring. In 2009, Damascus had a population of 1.711 million people. 90% were Muslims of both Sunni and Shi'a. Iraq had 31,234,000 with 97% Shi'a/Sunni. Lebanon, a small country, had 4,196,453 with only 60% Muslims of Sunni/Shi'a. They had had a large group of Christians who used to be the rulers.
Obama has 190 cities selected to take in 10,000 Syria refugees. " Last year we took in 36. "Of the more than 500 Syrian refugees brought to the U.S. so far this past year, 90 % of them have been Muslim,", Corcoran said.. Were they vetted during the past 2 years before allowed entrance? Is that even possible?
Resource: Letters From A Syrian Jew Trapped in Egypt: story of escaping Civil War in Syria, with what happened in cities in Syria, Muslim Brotherhood, by Nadene Goldfoot
http://www.truthandaction.org/list-190-cities-obama-will-placing-syrian-muslim-refugees/2/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/world/middleeast/obama-directs-administration-to-accept-10000-syrian-refugees.html?_r=0
https://www.unrwausa.org/
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/paaid12.html
From Time Immemorial-the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine by Joan Peters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_II,_German_Emperor
http://www.teaparty.org/united-states-paying-400-million-dollars-un-group-calling-terrorist-attacks-jews-125432/
Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb
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