The President of the United States initiated the Evian Conference in 1938 in an attempt to find a means that would aid emigrants from Germany and Austria and enable their absorption elsewhere. Thirty-two countries sent delegates with hopes that a solution would be found however, it quickly became clear to all that the even the great powers who had initiated the conference were not willing to take any significant steps towards accepting the refugees. Despite the speeches and the appeals, no one country was willing to commit themselves to practical measures, the smaller countries following the example of the larger ones. An international committee was set up in London for refugee affairs but it lacked funding as well as a place towards where they could direct the refugees. It is evident here that it is not a lack of knowledge that something had to be done, but rather an unwillingness that prevented the Western World from helping the Jews.
Words are just that, mere words, unless they are put into action.
As a result, the Evian Conference is regarded as a complete failure. Once the war began, the comprehensive information regarding the conditions in Germany that the Western World had at one time been provided with, ceased. Still, news of the Einsatzgruppen 's activities and the mass killings in the death camps found its way to the west. Up until the middle of the year 1942, the general tendency was to regard the consistent persecution of the Jews as just one part of the complex of oppression in the occupied countries. By the mid-1942 the horribly terrifying rumors about Hitler's Final Solution as well as the operations and atrocities being conducted were confirmed.