Statement and Directive on Displaced
Persons
(December 22, 1945)
The war has brought in its wake an appalling dislocation
of populations in Europe. Many humanitarian organizations, including
the United Nations Relief and the Rehabilitation Administration, are
doing their utmost to solve the multitude of problems arising in connection
with this dislocation of hundreds of thousands of persons. Every effort
is being made to return the displaced persons and refugees in the various
countries of Europe to their former homes. The great difficulty is that
so many of these persons have no homes to which they may return. The
immensity of the problem of displaced persons and refugees is almost
beyond comprehension.
A number of countries in Europe, including Switzerland,
Sweden, France and England, are working toward its solution. The United
States shares the responsibility to relieve the suffering. To the extent
that our present immigration laws permit, everything possible should
be done at once to facilitate the entrance of some of these displaced
persons and refugees into the United States.
In this way we may do something to relieve human misery
and set an example to the other countries of the world which are able
to receive some of these war sufferers. I feel that it is essential
that we do this ourselves to show our good faith in requesting other
nations to open their doors for this purpose.
Most of these persons are natives of central and eastern
Europe and the Balkans. The immigration quotas for all these countries
for one year total approximately 39,000, two-thirds of which are allotted
to Germany. Under the law, in any single month the number of visas issued
cannot exceed 10 per cent of the annual quota. This means that from
now on only about 3,900 visas can be issued each month to persons who
are natives of these countries.
Very few persons from Europe have migrated to the
United States during the war years. In the fiscal year 1942, only 10
per cent of the immigration quotas was used; in 1943, 5 per cent; in
1944, 6 per cent; and in 1945, 7 per cent. As of Nov. 30, 1945, the
end of the fifth month of the present fiscal year, only about 10 per
cent of the quotas for the European countries has been used. These unused
quotas, however, do not accumulate through the years, and I do not intend
to ask the Congress to change this rule.
The factors chiefly responsible for these low immigration
figures were restraints imposed by the enemy, transportation difficulties
and the absence of consular facilities. Most of those Europeans who
have been admitted to the United States during the last five years were
persons who left Europe prior to the war, and thereafter entered here
from non-European countries.
I consider that common decency and the fundamental
comradeship of all human beings require us to do what lies within our
power to see that our established immigration quotas are used in order
to reduce human suffering. I am taking the necessary steps to see that
this is done as quickly as possible.
Of the displaced persons and refugees whose entrance
into the United States we will permit under this plan, it is hoped that
the majority will be orphaned children. The provisions of law prohibiting
the entry of persons likely to become public charges will be strictly
observed. Responsible welfare organizations now at work in this field
will guarantee that these children will not become public charges.
Similar guarantees have to be or will be made on behalf
of adult persons. The record of these welfare organizations throughout
the past years has been excellent, and I am informed that no persons
admitted under their sponsorship have ever become charges on their communities.
Moreover, many of the immigrants will have close family ties in the
United States and will receive the assistance of their relatives until
they are in a position to provide for themselves.
These relatives or organizations will also advance
the necessary visa fees and travel fare. Where the necessary funds for
travel fare and visa fees have not been advanced by a welfare organization
or relative, the individual applicant must meet these costs. In this
way the transportation of these immigrants across the Atlantic will
not cost the American taxpayers a single dollar.
In order to enter the United States it is necessary
to obtain a visa from a consular officer of the Department of State.
As everyone knows, a great many of our consular establishments all over
the world were disrupted and their operations suspended when the war
came. It is physically impossible to reopen and to restaff all of them
overnight. Consequently it is necessary to choose the area in which
to concentrate our immediate efforts. This is a painful necessity because
it requires us to make an almost impossible choice among degrees of
misery. But if we refrain from making a choice because it will necessarily
be arbitrary, no choice will ever be made and we shall end by helping
no one.
The decision has been made, therefore, to concentrate
our immediate efforts in the American zones of occupation in Europe.
This is not intended, however entirely to exclude issuance of visas
in other parts of the world.
In our zones in Europe there are citizens of every
major European country. Visas issued to displaced persons and refugees
will be charged, according to law, to the countries of their origin.
They will be distributed fairly among persons of all faiths, creeds
and nationality.
It is intended. that, as soon as practicable, regular
consular facilities will be reestablished in every part of the world,
and the usual, orderly methods of registering and reviewing visa applications
will be resumed. The pressing need, however, is to act now in a way
that will produce immediate and tangible results. I hope that by early
spring adequate consular facilities will be in operation in our zones
in Europe, so that immigration can begin immediately upon the availability
of ships.
I am informed that there are various measures now
pending before the Congress which would either prohibit or severely
reduce further immigration. I hope that such legislation will not be
passed. This period of unspeakable human distress is not the time for
us to close or to narrow our gates. I wish to emphasize, however, that
any effort to bring relief to these displaced persons and refugees must
and will be strictly within the limits of the present quotas as imposed
by law.
There is one particular matter involving a relatively
small number of aliens. President Roosevelt, in an endeavor to assist
in handling displaced persons and refugees during the war and upon the
recommendation of the War Refugee Board, directed that a group of about
1,000 displaced persons be removed from refugee camps in Italy and settled
temporarily in a war relocation camp near Oswego, N. Y. Shortly thereafter,
President Roosevelt informed the Congress that these persons would be
returned to their homelands after the war.
Upon the basis of a careful survey by the Department
of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, it has been
determined that if these persons were now applying for admission to
the United States most of them would be admissible under the immigration
laws.
In the circumstances it would be inhumane and wasteful
to require these people to go all the way back to Europe merely for
the purpose of applying there for immigration visas and returning to
the United States. Many of them have close relatives, including sons
and daughters, who are citizens of the United States and who have served
and are serving honorably in the armed forces of our country.
I am therefore directing the Secretary of State and
the Attorney General to adjust the immigration status of the members
of this camp who may wish to remain here, in strict accordance with
existing laws and regulations
The number of persons at the Oswego camp is, however,
comparatively small. Our major task is to facilitate the entry into
the United States of displaced persons and refugees still in Europe.
To meet this larger problem, I am directing the Secretary of State,
the Attorney General, the Secretary of War, the War Shipping Administrator
and the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service to proceed at once
to take all appropriate steps to expedite the quota immigration of displaced
persons and refugees from Europe to the United States. Representatives
of these officials will depart for Europe very soon to prepare detailed
plans for the prompt execution of this project
The attached directive has been issued by me to the
responsible Government agencies to carry out this policy. I wish to
emphasize, above all, that nothing in this directive will deprive a
single American soldier or his wife or children of a berth on a vessel
homeward bound, or delay their return.
This is the opportunity for America to set an example
for the rest of the world in cooperation toward alleviating human misery.
The Directive
December 22, 1945
Memorandum to:
Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Attorney General, War Shipping
Administrator, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, Director
General of UNRRA.
The grave dislocation of populations in Europe resulting
from the war has produced human suffering that the people of the United
States cannot and will not ignore. This Government should take every
possible measure to facilitate full immigration to the United States
under existing quota laws.
The war has most seriously disrupted our normal facilities
for handling immigration matters in many parts of the world. At the
same time the demands upon those facilities have increased manifold.
It is, therefore, necessary that immigration under
the quotas be resumed initially in the areas of greatest need. I, therefore,
direct the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General,
the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, the War Shipping Administrator,
and other appropriate officials to take the following action:
The Secretary of State is directed to establish with
the utmost dispatch consular facilities at or near displaced person
and refugee assembly center areas in the American zones of occupation.
It shall be the responsibility of these consular officers, in conjunction
with the immigrant inspectors, to determine as quickly as possible the
eligibility of the applicants for visas and admission to the United
States.
For this purpose the Secretary will, if necessary,
divert the personnel and funds of his department from other functions
in order to insure the most expeditious handling of this operation.
In cooperation with the Attorney General he shall appoint as temporary
vice consuls, authorized to issue visas, such officers of the Immigration
and Naturalization Service as can be made available for this program
Within the limits of administrative discretion, the
officers of the Department of State assigned to this program shall make
every effort to simplify and to hasten the process of issuing visas.
If necessary, blocs of visa numbers may be assigned to each of the emergency
consular establishments. Each such bloc may be used to meet the applications
filed at the consular establishment to which the bloc is assigned. It
is not intended, however, entirely to exclude the issuance of visas
in other parts of the world.
Visas should be distributed fairly among persons of
all faiths, creeds and nationalities. I desire that special attention
be devoted to orphaned children to whom it is hoped the majority of
visas will be issued.
With respect to the requirement of law that visas
may not be issued to applicants likely to become public charges after
admission to the United States, the Secretary of State shall cooperate
with the immigration and naturalization service in perfecting appropriate
arrangements with welfare organizations in the United States which may
be prepared to guarantee financial support to successful applicants.
This may be accomplished by corporate affidavit or by any means deemed
appropriate and practicable.
The Secretary of War, subject to limitation imposed
by the Congress on War Department appropriations, will give such help
as is practicable in:
(A) Furnishing information to appropriate consular
officers and immigrant inspectors to facilitate in the selection of
applicants for visas; and
(B) Assisting until other facilities suffice in:
(1) Transporting immigrants to a European port;
(2) Feeding, housing and providing medical care to such immigrants until
embarked; and
(C) Making available office facilities, billets, messes
and transportation for Department of State, Department of Justice and
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration personnel connected
with this work, where practicable and requiring no out-of-pocket expenditure
by the War Department and when other suitable facilities are not available.
The Attorney General, through the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, will assign personnel on duty in the American
zones of operation to make the immigration inspections, to assist consular
officers of the Department of State in connection with the issuance
of visas and to take the necessary steps to settle the cases of those
Allies presently interned at Oswego through appropriate statutory and
administrative processes.
The Administration of the War Shipping Administration
will make the necessary arrangements for water transportation from the
port of embarkation in Europe to the United States, subject to the provision
that the movement of immigrants will in no way interfere with the scheduled
return of service personnel and their spouses and children from the
European Theatre.
The Surgeon General of the Public Health Service will
assign to duty in the American zones of occupation the necessary personnel
to conduct the mental and physical examinations of prospective immigrants
prescribed in the immigration laws.
The Director General of the United Nations Relief
and Rehabilitation Administration will be requested to provide all possible
aid to the United States authorities in preparing these people for transportation
to the United States and to assist in their care, particularly in the
cases of children in transit and others needing special attention.
In order to insure the effective execution of this
program, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Attorney
General, War Shipping Administrator and the Surgeon General of the Public
Health Service shall appoint representatives to serve as members of
an interdepartmental committee under the chairmanship of the Commissioner
of Immigration and Naturalization.
Sources: New York Times, (December 22, 1945). Words
of Peace-Words of War. |