Dominican Republic Settlement Association Anniversary Scrapbook and Photographs

In the wake of the German Anschluss of Austria in March 1938, President Roosevelt convened a 32 nation conference at Evian-les-Baines, France to discuss the resettlement of German and Austrian Jews. The participants created an Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees (IGCR). At the first IGCR meeting, Generalissimo Trujillo offered to admit into the Dominican Republic up to 100,000 refugees from Europe. Promptly, the Refugee Economic Corporation and the President's Advisory Committee on Political Refugees, under Executive Secretary George L. Warren, launched feasibility studies on settlement prospects. Other studies followed, notably one by Dr. Joseph A. Rosen, President of the Agro-Joint. He recommended the tract of Sosua, with its 26,000 acres on the north shore of the island, as a desirable location.

In October 1939, Generalissimo Trujillo announced that 500 refugee families would be admitted immediately under the auspices of the IGCR in the wake of discussions conducted with the President's Advisory Committee and the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Accordingly, it offered a commitment of $200,000 from its residual assets towards the launch of a settlement undertaking in the Dominican Republic under the auspices of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA). DORSA was incorporated in New York State; James N. Rosenberg was elected President and Joseph A. Rosen Vice President. Over the years, DORSA received other large-scale allocations from the Agro-Joint.

An agreement was signed with the Trujillo government on January 30, 1940. The contract read in part: "The Republic hereby guarantees to the settlers and their descendants full opportunity to continue their lives and occupations free from molestation, discrimination or persecution, with full freedom of religion, civil, legal and economic rights, as well as other rights inherent to human beings." The uptake was slow, initially only 50 Jews made it across the Atlantic arriving in May 1940. They were given eighty acres of land and ten cows and received instruction in farming from kibbutzim in Palestine (only 13 of the refugees had farming experience). The population peaked in October 1941 at about 500 before the Third Reich suspended Jewish emigration and additional problems were encountered with submarine warfare in the Atlantic. A meat processing plant and cheese factory were soon established. However, the settlement performed significantly below expectations. Conditions were difficult, morale was poor and in early 1941 the Vice President of DORSA even considered freezing the project.