The American Friends Service Committee's Mission to the Gestapo

Abstract

The Night of Broken Glass (November 9–10, 1938) and its aftermath prompted the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization, to send a three‐man delegation to Berlin in December 1938 to intercede with the Nazi government on behalf of Germany's Jews. The delegation quickly learned from German Jewish leaders that emigration was more urgent than relief. It met with two of Reinhard Heydrich's lieutenants at the Gestapo on December 19 and proposed that the AFSC assume control of Jewish and non‐Aryan emigration: The AFSC over the next three years would relieve Germany of every Jew who was fit to leave. Heydrich appeared to agree to the Quakers’ proposal. The leader of the AFSC's delegation, the pre‐eminent American Quaker, Rufus Jones, thought the Quaker message of love and goodwill had momentarily triumphed over the Nazis’ hate. But evidence surrounding Adolf Eichmann's visit to the Gestapo a month later suggests otherwise. (The author wishes to thank the attendees of the 2015 conference of the Peace History Society for their invaluable feedback on his presentation of an earlier version of this article.)