Immigration Responses to the Jews in the 1930s

European immigration policies towards the Jews in the 1930s were not kind to them. France tightened restrictions against Jewish immigration into the country. By 1933 only 30,000 Jews had been allowed to enter France. Britain no longer was accepting any immigrants of any ethnicity. No more than 5,000 Jews were allowed to enter England. England did accept a few more thousand Jews but not much more than that. Jews became refugees in search of a place to live. 10,000 Jews went to Argentina and Brazil, 5,000 Jews went to South Africa and 2,000 Jews went to Canada and Australia. 17,000 Jews also went to China which was more receptive to Jewish immigration than most other European countries. 130,000 Jews also immigrated to Latin America and other Asian nations. The United States itself took in very few Jews because it felt the economy was still suffering from the Great Depression.

In the U.S. by 1939, President Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt changed policy of allowing Jewish immigrants into the country after news reached him about Kristallnacht and the Jewish plight. He combined Jewish quotas of German and Austrian Jews and allowed 33,000 Jews into America. From 1933 to 1941 and additional 104,000 Jews entered the country.

A Jewish office was set up in Germany for immigration for Jews and the organization hoped to resettle Jewish people into Palestine. This group was called the Palastina-Amt. The organization also tried to use diplomacy with Hitler to move the Jew out of Germany. In August of 1933, representatives of the Jewish Agency and the German Ministry of Economic affairs allowed Jews to purchase German goods to take with them to Palestine on their immigration. In the 1930s, 20,000 Jews migrated to Palestine. In 1939 however, the Nazi Party rescinded this agreement and refused to let German Jews settle in Palestine because they did not want to anger the Arabs.

In Palestine, Jews had been increasing in number from refugees and the economy was prospering. Jews began taking more land from native Arabs, causing huge resentment from them. In 1929, the Grand Mufti which was a position created by England for the Islamic high judge of appeal, organized a resistance campaign against the Jews and in August the rioting broke out leaving several hundred Jews and Arabs died. In England, Lord Passfield issued a document called the Passfield White Paper which suspended Jewish immigration to Palestine and suspended Jewish land purchases in Palestine. In 1931, Jewish outraged caused Prime Minister MacDonald to cancel the White Paper document. In 1936 the rioting continued and Arabs from Syria and Iraq began infiltrating into Palestine and attacking Jewish people. Finally, the rioting stopped momentarily when the British offered to have a thorough investigation of the Arab complaints and demands. England set a commission which was led by Robert Peel to Palestine to check the complaints. Detailed hearings were done for 6 weeks with nothing getting accomplished. Professor Reginald Coupland then came up with the idea of a partition into a Jewish an Arab state. Some Zionists like Jabotinsky rejected this idea while almost all of the Arab representatives outright rejected the idea.

In 1937 the Arab rioting continued and they also rioted against the British citizens and troops stationed in Palestine. In 1938 the British government sent more troops into Palestine to restore the peace. In 1939, an official White Paper doctrine was created on Palestine. In the White Paper doctrine, it promised that Britain would recognize a Palestinian state within ten years and in the first five years of that time span, Jewish immigration would be limited to 10,000 people with no more than 25,000 people in the fifth year. Jews were left shocked and angry by the doctrine.