The Harrison Report was a July 1945 report carried out by United States lawyer Earl G. Harrison, as U.S. representative to the

. Harrison's report was part of the impetus for the creation of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry regarding

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, then under a British mandate, which was formed to recommend policies for dealing with both Jewish war refugees and the problems of Palestine. Following the completion of the report, Truman sent a copy to British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, with respect to Britain’s responsibility for Palestine. Truman wrote "On the basis of this and other information which has come to me I concur in the belief that no other single matter is so important for those who have known the horrors of concentration camps for over a decade as is the future of immigration possibilities into Palestine." The British responded negatively to the report; they blamed Zionist pressure for the report's conclusion regarding Palestine, and suggested that the United States should also take a share of the refugees. Attlee wanted the report kept confidential, but his request was ignored.

Appointment and scope

President Roosevelt appointed Harrison as the U.S. representative on the Intergovernmental Commission on Refugees on March 15, 1945. On June 18, the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

sent a detailed and strongly worded memo to the British authorities requesting 100,000 immigration permits for Jewish displaced persons (DPs) in Europe. On June 22, two months after Roosevelt’s death,

President Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th Vice president of the United States, vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Frank ...

asked Harrison to conduct an inspection tour of camps holding displaced persons (DPs) in Europe, on the urging of outgoing Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. Harrison was asked to inquire into the conditions and needs of those among the displaced persons in the liberated countries of Western Europe and in

Allied-occupied Germany The entirety of Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II, from the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949. Unlike occupied Japan, Nazi Germany was stripped of its sov ...

and

Allied-occupied Austria Austria was occupied by the Allies of World War II, Allies and declared independence from Nazi Germany on 27 April 1945 (confirmed by the Berlin Declaration (1945), Berlin Declaration for Germany on 5 June 1945), as a result of the Vienna offen ...

with particular reference to the Jewish refugees who may possibly be stateless or non-repatriable:

(1) the conditions under which displaced persons and particularly those who may be stateless or non-repatriable are at present living, especially in Germany and Austria,
(2) the needs of such persons,
(3) how those needs are being met at present by the military authorities, the governments of residence and international and private relief bodies, and
(4) the views of the possibly non-repatriable persons as to their future destinations.

Harrison left in early July as the head of a small delegation, including two representatives of the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Advert Where and how does this article resemble an WP:SOAP, advert and how should it be improved? See: Wikipedia:Spam (you might trthe Teahouseif you have questions). American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a J ...

, Joseph J. Schwartz and Herbert Katzki, the latter also of the War Refugee Board, and Patrick Murphy Malin of the

Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (ICR), also known as the Intergovernmental Committee for Political Refugees or the Évian Committee (), abbreviated as IGC, or sometimes IGCR, was formed on July 14th, 1938Eisenhower, Commander of U.S. Forces in Europe. Eisenhower responded promptly with a series of measures that segregated Jewish DPs, found housing even if it meant displacing German locals, increased rations, and preference in employment, perhaps aided by information about the Report's contents before it reached Truman. Another immediate result of Harrison's recommendations was the appointment of an adviser on Jewish affairs to the U.S. Army, based on the recommendation of several Jewish organizations to the secretary of war. Rabbi Judah P. Nadich was the first, followed in October 1945 by Simon H. Rifkind, a New York City judge and municipal official. Finally, the ''Report'' focused the attention of the Truman and the U.S. military on the Jewish DPs. Truman wrote to Eisenhower on August 31: It also highlighted Palestine as the solution and British control of immigration there as a crucial barrier. Eisenhower replied to the Harrison Report with a lengthy update to Truman in mid-October, explaining changes in conditions and contesting Harrison's assertion, in Eisenhower's words, that "our military guards are now substituting for SS troops". He wrote that: Harrison responded in a radio address the next day that what Eisenhower viewed as improvements fell far short of what was required: "The point is that they shouldn't be in any camps at all, but in houses. Shifting them from one camp to another can hardly be said to be liberation." Among those most displeased with the report was General George S. Patton, who oversaw DP operations for the U.S. and thus felt personally reproached by Harrison's findings. In journal entries from 1945 (as reported by Eric Lichtblau), Patton expressed disdain for Jews in the camps: "Harrison and his ilk believe that the Displaced Person is a human being, which he is not, and this applies particularly to the Jews who are lower than animals." In other entries, Patton described the utter squalor in the Jewish living quarters and makeshift synagogue, but Lichtblau adds:

Palestine

Harrison's report was part of the impetus for the creation of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine, which was formed to recommend policies for dealing with both Jewish war refugees and the problems of Palestine. Harrison campaigned on behalf of his proposal in the months that followed, testifying in January 1946 before the Anglo-American Committee. In 1946, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called Harrison's work "the first official proposal for the immediate settlement of 100,000 Jews in Palestine". Harrison's report has been credited by some historians as a crucial step in the development of United States support for the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. In June he called for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

to create an agency to address the problems of those uprooted by war, many now stateless, and he thought Latin America might welcome many of them. British Foreign Secretary

Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1940 and ...

referred to the report in a speech to the House of Commons, a week after the London Conference of 1946–47 – Britain's last attempt to negotiate peace in Palestine – failed. In the speech, he blamed the Harrison Report for the ill feeling which ensued:[PALESTINE (GOVERNMENT POLICY)
HC Deb 25 February 1947 vol 433 cc1901–2007

But I think we might have been able to do more for the Jews, and have increased this rate at that time, if the bitterness of feeling which surrounds this problem of immigration had not been increased by American pressure for the immediate admission of 100,000. I do not desire to create any ill feeling with the United States; in fact, I have done all I can to promote the best possible relations with them, as with other countries, but I should have been happier if they had had regard to the fact that we were the Mandatory Power, and that we were carrying the responsibility and if they had only waited to ask us what we were doing. Then we could have informed them. But, instead of that, a person named Earl Harrison went out to their zone in Germany collecting certain information, and a report was issued. I must say it really destroyed the basis of good feeling that we—the Colonial Secretary and I—were endeavouring to produce in the Arab States, and it set the whole thing back.

Bibliography

*Allen H. Podet, 1978,
Anti-Zionism in a Key United States Diplomat: Loy Henderson at the End of World War II
" pp. 155–87, American Jewish Archives Journal *Penkower, Monty Noam.
The Earl Harrison Report: Its Genesis and Its Significance
. American Jewish Archives Journal, 68, no.1 (2016): 1–75 * *

References

{{Documents of Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine in World War II Holocaust historical documents Displaced persons camps in the aftermath of World War II 1945 documents Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine

Appointment and scope

Palestine

See also

Bibliography

References