Initially supportive of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo’s offer to accept 100,000 Jews at the 1938 Evian Conference, Washington began to back away from its ringing endorsement soon after a succession of German victories throughout Western Europe during the spring of 1940. Only 750 refugees would find their way to Sosúa, a farming settlement on the island’s north coast. Why did the Roosevelt administration discourage Trujillo from taking in additional refugees, putting the settlement’s future in jeopardy? This lecture will explore the impact such an abrupt change in policy had for other refugees seeking to flee Nazism and for U.S. policy in Latin America?

Allen Wells is the Roger Howell, Jr. Professor of History at Bowdoin College. His scholarship has focused on modern Mexican history, especially Yucatán, the history of commodities, and U.S.-Latin American relations, and he offers a range of courses in colonial and modern Latin American history. Originally from New York, he received his M.A (1974) and Ph.D. (1979) in History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his B.A. (1973) in History and Latin American Studies from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

This event is sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, with generous support from the Jim Joseph Foundation and the David B. Gold Foundation. Staff support provided by the Institute for Humanities Research.