German-Speaking Refugees to the United States between 1933 and 1945

Suzanne Sinke, Florida State University

This paper surveys existing material on Jewish and other German-speaking migrants who managed to find refuge in the United States during the period of Nazi control in Germany, from 1933 to 1945. Antisemitism impelled many Jews to flee, though US policies made it bureaucratically difficult if not impossible to gain entry. Scholars have demonstrated barriers that many countries placed on potential migrants, as well as a plethora of strategies for escape. Getting out of German regions of control was the first step. Though Germans should have had access to significant quotas under existing US immigration law, antisemitism on the US side (especially ingrained in the State Department) made it much more difficult to access them. The range of strategies people used to get to the US varied. Many online collections as well as scholarly studies document this movement.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 118. Migrant Agencies and Countering State Mandates