So in early 1944, Turkey was seen as the main escape route, which makes sense. The part of Europe that was the most cut off was in the east, and the idea was that refugees could escape south through Romania and Bulgaria and get out to Turkey. But only 7,000 refugees made it to Turkey in the entirety of 1943, most of whom came from Greece.
Turkey was hesitant to allow refugees to enter because they didn’t want them to stay and no one would agree to take them. Palestine would have been the likely destination–there was a train from Istanbul to the border of Syria and then the refugees could go to Palestine. But Great Britain controlled the mandate to Palestine and the White Paper was in effect, so only a certain number of Jews could enter each year.
Today’s document is a letter from the British embassy in Washington to Pehle, explaining that the British were allowing all the refugees arriving in Palestine to remain, and were granting them Palestine certificates when they arrived. But, of course, they weren’t telling very many people this, including the Turkish government. So Turkey’s still doesn’t want to let anyone in, because the British won’t confirm that the refugees could go to Palestine. Good job, guys.
