Harrison Report

The Harrison Report brought the circumstances and stated preferences of Jewish survivors in European displaced-person camps into Harry S. Truman’s deliberations over Palestine. Its account reinforced Truman’s existing sympathy and helped frame the question as an urgent human crisis, not merely a diplomatic problem.

Commission and Scope

In the summer of 1945, Truman received a report from Earl G. Harrison, dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a former U.S. Commissioner of Immigration. Harrison had been sent to investigate displaced-person camps in Europe and speak with Jewish survivors. The resulting document conveyed conditions that Truman found profoundly troubling.

Findings on Displaced Jews

The report described the survivors’ misery and identified Palestine as their clear preference. It presented Palestine as the place where they expected to be welcomed, find peace, and have an opportunity to live and work. Its emphasis on the absence of another comparable refuge made the disposition of Palestine central to the survivors’ prospects, rather than an abstract question of territorial policy.

Reception in the White House

The account reinforced beliefs Truman already held. As a senator, he had supported doing everything humanly possible to provide Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution with a haven and had personally assured Zionist leaders that he would work for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. As president, the report gave added force to those commitments: he regarded the misery it described as something that could not be allowed to continue.

Place in Truman’s Palestine Policy

The Harrison Report was one influence within a wider and politically sensitive debate, not a complete policy blueprint. Truman’s staff included Clark Clifford and David K. Niles, both described as strong advocates for the Jewish cause; Niles sensed that Truman’s sympathy for Jewish suffering was fundamental. The report supplied a survivor-focused account that strengthened this humanitarian dimension of Truman’s thinking, while the consequences of Palestine policy extended beyond Jewish survivors to Arab Palestinians and broader Middle Eastern relations.