US participation in IGCR activity during 1943

• Main Author: V. V. Yushkevych
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Publishing House "Grani" 2018-11-01
• Series: Granì
• Subjects: USA; IGCR; Bermuda Conference; FDR; political refugees; UNRRA
• Online Access: https://grani.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/1253
• ISSN: 2077-1800; 2413-8738

The article covers the resumption of the active work of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees through the prism of US activity within this structure. Created on the initiative of American leader F. Roosevelt in 1938 to help refugees from Austria and Germany, IGCR in reality appeared dysfunctional with the outburst of the Second World War. The article examines factors that revitalized activities of the defined structure. It was emphasized that the organization’s revival was made possible by appropriate initiatives originating from the British and American parties in early 1943. It was determined that strategic and tactical tasks were discussed and adopted on the basis of the results of an Inter-allied Bermuda Refugee Conference. Special mention was made to the work of American representatives of the American delegation headed by the Rector of Princeton University - Harold Dodds. The article reveals agenda of the resumed meetings of the Executive Committee of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, analysis its results. The main range of issues that the Directorate of the IGCR had to deal with: the renewal of the membership of twenty-nine countries and the further expansion of the organization through the invitation and involvement of twenty new member states, the co-optation of new representatives of the new member states into the governing and executive body of the organization, changing approaches to funding, and introduction of the principle of “binding decisions”, preparation for the convening of a General congress. The questions, which were separately considered at the meetings of the Executive Committee - expansion of the territorial mandate of the IGCR, Soviet-Polish contradictions, the definition of the representative of the French delegation in connection with the struggle for leadership in the resistance of Russia, the creation of refugee camps in North Africa. It has been evaluated the influence on decision-making process of American representatives in the Executive Committee of the IGCR - Patrick Malin and John Winant. During the preparation of the article a potential source as the diplomatic correspondence of documents of the American foreign policy department are researched. Attention is drawn to the analysis of this matter in the investigations and research work of foreign historians. The article clarifies that the formation of a new system of international protection of refugees proclaimed F. Roosevelt in 1938 took place in complicated foreign policy circumstances. The change of the situation on the fronts, the emergence of public opinion and the new approaches of the British government allowed in the first half of 1943 to return to the development of instruments and mechanisms to conduct relief work and assistance to war refugees through the implementation of IGCR’s projects.