Cypher telegram from Con Cremin to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(No. 203)

My tel. 200.¹ Immediately after démarche your tel. 254² I called on official my tel. 28³ to enquire position as regards your telegram 166.⁴ Your tel. 172.⁵ He had told me Dec. 13th that decision first paragraph my tel. 189⁶ had been modified and that he could again receive me in connection with Jewish questions. On this occasion he said clearly under influence of the decision given by Deputy for Secretary of State about which he had been consulted and alleging same reason, that no further official representations could be received from us in connection with the persons concerned see below.

I have had several conversations with colleagues of both sections of Swiss Legation during the past two weeks. They believe that representations in connection with Jews will generally speaking give no positive result. The foreign interests section have made on behalf of U.S.A. total of twelve démarches since April in regard to Jews with Latin American passports as a whole and over 56 démarches in respect of individuals among them. The U.S.A. proposed in April exchange of such Jews against German nationals many of whom have apparently been brought from Latin America to U.S.A. and interned there. Germans have lately furnished a list of about 650 Jews of this kind in Bergen-Belsen and have apparently agreed to exchange. The U.S.A. however now refuse to accept them except to the extent to which Germans remain over after all U.S.A. citizens have been exchanged. This apparently means that they will not take more than 75 Latin American passport Jews. If this is so it is quite clear that as Swiss colleagues think the U.S.A. have not been sincere in this matter.

It would appear that it is a well known practice here to allow Jews to leave against payment of foreign exchange the present rate being around 1,000 dollars each. One Swiss colleague tells me that a very important Swiss armaments manufacturer who was on the U.S. black list recently bought 400 Jews in the hope of having his name deleted. Last week German authorities without any prior notification whatever deposited at the Swiss frontier 1,300 Hungarian Jews without papers of any kind. The Swiss here do not know where these Jews came from or to what to attribute this action – whether to démarche 22nd November of Swiss Minister proper my tel. 200⁷ or to the fact that persons concerned may have been paid for in foreign exchange. On Dec. 18th Deputy for Secretary of State implied that Swiss Government's démarche Nov. 22 was rejected on ground that Switzerland has no locus standi. Various proposals have been made by Jewish organisations abroad for redemption of Jews here such as supply of food and even, I am told, war material but all these combinations have so far fallen through because Swiss authorities are not prepared to grant export licenses.

The Nuncio told me Dec. 13th that he tried to intervene about Brazilian Jews in Bergen-Belsen but that his démarche was rejected for same reason as ours of Dec. 18th.

Official first paragraph above told me that if I wished he would on personal grounds try to ascertain privately whether any of the Jews your tel. 172⁸ are in Bergen-Belsen. I have asked him to do so. The list furnished to Swiss par. 2 above which purports to be complete list of Jews holding Latin American passports contains only seven persons who might be identical with those mentioned in your tel. 172 viz. five named Wolf all of Dutch birth apparently and two named Schoenberg born Poland. My Swiss colleagues⁹ believe that none of the Jews formerly in V. is in B.B. See my tel. 157.¹⁰

It might assist Swiss foreign interests section to know whether you are prepared to grant visas to any V. Jews who may be in B.B.