Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees
A council of six members was informally formed from this circle, with Lord Winterton (UK),[3] Henry Bérenger (France) and Myron Taylor (USA) prominent.[5][3] Four days before the first meeting of the ICR in London, on 3 August 1938,[1] the British Ambassador Nevile Henderson formally asked State Secretary Ernst von Weizsäcker whether he wished to receive the leader of the negotiations.He intended to create an "Imperial Association of Jews in Germany" and, along with the international Jewish aid organizations, make it responsible for acquiring foreign currency and obtaining immigration permits.At their meeting in mid-February 1939, the government representatives of the ICR limited themselves to non-committal statements about "promoting... the possibility of permanent resettlement of 'forced migrants' from Germany" and taking the financing plans "under consideration".At the Bermuda Conference,[4] which opened on 19 April 1943 with the participation of the United States and Great Britain to deal with the problem of war refugees, it was decided to reactivate the ICR.[25] In August 1943, the ICR Executive Committee recognized that the circumstances of the war required it to go beyond its original mandate and care for people who had left their homeland for religious, racial or political reasons out of fear for their lives and freedom.