[4.1. First emigration
wave 1933 in general]
[Emigration 1932 and economic
crisis worldwide]
The initial exodus of Jews from Germany in 1933 caught the Jewish
philanthropic organizations with little money at their disposal. JDC
had spent only $ 340,815 in 1932, and with the economic crisis in the
United States reaching its height, the prospect for additional funds
was bleak.
[1933: The first emigration wave
without preparation partly fails]
As we have seen, estimates of the numbers of Jewish refugees were
overstated at first: about 37,000 Jews left Germany in 1933, the
discrepancy arising largely from the fact that a considerable number of
German Jews returned to Germany before long.
(End note 1: R17, 10/19/34 [19 October 1934] - JDC memorandum from
Paris to JDC Allocation Committee; this stated that in 1933, 59,300
persons had fled, of whom 51,000 were Jews. By April 1934 these figures
were reported to have grown to 63,400 and 54,500 respectively. The JDC
Report for 1933 (R19) says that 52,365 Jews fled Germany in 1933).
The reason for that was the inhospitable reception they got in the
refugee countries, where unprepared and ill-financed ad hoc Jewish
committees were incapable of coping with the flow of refugees. The
refugees themselves were often taken aback by the hardships that
freedom had in store for them, and for which their mostly middle-class
backgrounds had not prepared them.
Tis was especially true in France, to which the bulk of the refugees
(some 21,250) turned in 1933. It should be remembered that in that
first year a high proportion of refugees (72-74 %) stayed in Europe
because they had not prepared for emigration overseas.
(End note 2: See chapter 3, note 19).
[Werner Rosenstock: Exodus 1933-1939; In: Leo Baeck
Yearbook; London 1956, 1:373-90. The author bases his article on one by
Dr. Kurt Zielenzieger in the December 1937 issue of the London journal:
Population)].
This picture was to change materially in subsequent years.
The Jewish organizations tried to come to the aid of the refugees. In
the early spring of 1933 a conference of the leading Jewish (p.138)
Tabelle 7: Jewish Emigration from Germany,
1933-1937*
(*Based on Werner Rosenstock; see note 2)
|
Year
|
1933
|
1934
|
1935
|
1936
|
1937
|
Total
|
No. of emigrants
|
37,000
|
23,000
|
21,000
|
25,000
|
23,000
|
129,000**
|
**
Of these [129,000], 85,490 were assisted through the Zentralausschuss
(about 66 % of the total). Of those assisted, 44,311 were
"repatriated", mostly to Poland and other East European countries;
17,130 went to Palestine, 10,196 to European countries, and 13,853 to
overseas countries. The large proportion of repatriates among those
assisted is due to the poverty of many East European Jews who had
settled in Germany after 1918. The percentage of the total number of
emigrants who went to overseas countries other than Palestine grew from
7-9 % in 1933 to 41-46 % in 1936, and 60 % in 1937 (see also JDC Primer (New York, 1945).
|
philanthropic groups was held in Paris, convened to all intents and
purposes by Kahn. Three million francs ($ 160,000) was allocated on the
spot - one million each by JDC, the Alliance Israélite Universelle, and
ICA [Jewish Colonization Association]. A small steering committee,
composed of Neville Laski of the
British Board of (Jewish) Deputies, Dr. Louis Oungre for ICA, and Kahn,
was to distribute the money. With these funds it was hoped to establish
loan kassas in Germany, supply refugees in France and other countries
with essential relief, and work for emigration and resettlement. The
sums were soon found to be insufficient, especially the 250,000 francs
that went to support refugees in France.
Apart from such well-established organizations as JDC, ICA, and the
Alliance, British Jewry now organized itself for effective aid to
refugees. In March 1933 an old aid committee to help Russian Jewish
immigrants to Britain, the Jews' Temporary Shelter, was transformed
into the Jewish Refugees Committee, headed by Otto M. Schiff, a cousin
of Felix M. Warburg's wife. Quite contrary to the American practice, a
delegation that included Schiff, Neville Laski, of the Board of
Deputies, and Leonard Montefiore (p.139)
of the more conservative Anglo-Jewish Association went to see the
officials of the Home Office in London and assured the British
government that Jewish refugees arriving in Britain would not be
allowed to become public charges. An Academic Assistance Council headed
by Sir William Beveridge tried to help refugee intellectuals, and
managed to support over two hundred such persons during the first two
years of the Nazi persecutions. A separate Jewish Academic Committee
helped professionals.
