Free 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany by Steven Pressman Page B

explain why the quota and visa numbers did not match up. In some cases, Jews who had been waiting for visas to America wound up escaping instead to places like Shanghai or Cuba—two destinations that had proven relatively open to Jewish families desperate to leave Europe. (In Shanghai, Jewish refugees had already created a “Little Vienna” neighborhood, with streets that were lined with Viennese bakeries, cafés, and delicatessens.) In other cases, visas had been issued to Jews who could no longer afford to make the journey to the United States.
    This was the result of one of the cruelest paradoxes of the Nazis’ policy of Judenrein . The Nazis wanted Jews to leave and readily allowed Jews to leave. But it took money to go someplace, and Hitler’s anti-Jewish laws and policies had stripped virtually all Jewish adults of their wealth and means of earning a living.
    As he listened to Messersmith’s coldly realistic assessment of America’s immigration policies, Gil had a flickering thought about how he might be able to bring in some children. It was only a tiny glimmer of hope, but it was certainly worth mentioning. Might it be possible, he asked, to set aside some of the unused visas that would otherwise simply expire if they could not be used in time? Rather than letting these so-called dead visas vanish into thin air, Gil suggested that they be reserved for children from families who were already waiting for their own visas to the United States. As Gil and Louis Levine had already explained to Messersmith, Brith Sholom was willing to pay for boat tickets and all other expenses that would be required to transport a group of children out of Nazi Germany and into the United States. Equally important, Gil also promised that the plan would fully comply with all of the requirements of America’s immigration laws. In particular, each child would have a financial sponsor who would guarantee that the child, once in America, would not become a “public charge”—someone dependent upon any type of public support.
    Messersmith listened politely to Gil’s proposal. It was an intriguing idea, he admitted—and certainly one that had never been suggested by anyone else. He was willing to run it by Geist and others at the American embassy in Berlin, where the visas would have to be issued. Beyond that, however, he could make no promises.
    On Friday, February 3, shortly after their meeting in Washington, Gil typed out a two-page letter to Messersmith that described the general outline of the Brith Sholom plan to bring fifty Jewish children from Germany to the United States. Gil again assured Messersmith that there would be no attempt to circumvent the immigration laws or the existing German quota. “We will supply satisfactory affidavits and guarantees from individuals of good standing and character to fulfill the public charge requirements. Each child shall have his own affidavit,” wrote Gil. He also reminded Messersmith that there were “ample private funds to provide transportation of the children from Germany to Philadelphia and for their support, maintenance and education.” Gil’s letter further explained his own role—and that of Eleanor’s—in the unfolding rescue plan. “To accomplish our purposes as promptly as possible, Mrs. Kraus and I are prepared to go to Germany to arrange with the proper governmental authorities for the selection of eligible children, the filing of the affidavits, and the transportation of the children.” He closed the letter with a request that Messersmith offer some word in reply “concerning the feasibility of our plan and news from Germany.”
    On the same day that Gil wrote his letter to Messersmith, the State Department official sent a two-page cable to Geist in Berlin. The cable began with a reminder that “all sorts of steps are being proposed to bring children into this country in various ways.” Messersmith mentioned that several bills were expected to be introduced in