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

Congress that would allow for children living in Nazi Germany—Jewish and otherwise—to be admitted into the United States above and beyond the quota limits. “My own view is that all these bills will probably die if they are introduced,” Messersmith candidly told Geist. “Although I am generally sympathetic to the idea of the admission of children under 15 years of age in a certain number . . . I believe the administrative difficulties in carrying through such a mission are tremendous and perhaps insuperable.” Besides, he added, debating any kind of immigration legislation “is going to raise discussion which we want to avoid.” Messersmith, above all else, was a political pragmatist who was well aware that anti-immigrant members of Congress would seize on any excuse to restrict immigration even further.
    Without mentioning Brith Sholom by name, Messersmith’s cable referred to “a responsible group” that was hoping to bring in children “under the quota whose parents for some reason or other may not be able to emigrate.” In order to determine whether the plan might work, “a man and a woman of this organization intend to go to Germany and talk over certain matters with you and to go into certain aspects of the problem.” Gil and Eleanor were both Jewish, he explained to Geist, but “I told them that I did not see any reason why an American Jew or Jewess should not go to Germany on such legitimate business and I did not believe that they were running any special risk in so doing. As to whether a Jew or Jewess could find a proper hotel to stay in, I was uncertain and that I would write you.” Messersmith ended his cable with a request that Geist reply with either a “voyage feasible” or “voyage not feasible” response.
    Three days later, on February 6, Messersmith sent a letter to Gil saying that he thought Brith Sholom “thoroughly understands our immigration laws and practice” and that Gil’s proposed plan “is, I believe, the only sound and feasible way to approach this problem.” But, as he had emphasized during the meeting, Messersmith stressed that “there is nothing which this Government or this Department can do which involves sponsoring any such procedure.”
    Messersmith was willing, however, to take quieter steps aimed at giving at least an unofficial nod of approval to the rescue effort. Not long after his meeting with Gil, Messersmith sent a memo to A. M. Warren and Eliot Coulter, the senior State Department officials in charge of the visa division. “I believe that this group is a responsible one and they do seem to be a sensible one,” Messersmith wrote. “They have made a very favorable impression on me and their one thought is to carry through this project, which involves the initial bringing in of some 50 children, completely within the framework of our present immigration laws and practice.” He sent a similar message to Geist in a second cable to Berlin that described the Brith Sholom plan in more detail. “They have approached this whole problem in a much more sensible and understanding way than most people. I think you may give any representatives of this organization, whose names I would eventually send you, full cooperation within the framework of our existing immigrations laws and procedure.”
    Two weeks later, on Monday, February 20, Messersmith received a telegram from Geist. It simply said: “Voyage entirely feasible.”

CHAPTER 7

    What is American citizenship worth if it allows American children to go hungry, unschooled and without proper medical attention while we import children from a foreign country? Let the sympathies of the American people be with American children first .
    —S ENATOR R OBERT R EYNOLDS OF N ORTH C AROLINA
    W ASHINGTON , D.C .
    F EBRUARY –M ARCH 1939
    O n the morning of Thursday, February 9, 1939, Senator Robert Wagner, a Democrat from New York, rose to his feet next to his polished mahogany desk in the chamber of the United