Re: Moving during WWII
Lotte Evans (rylcae@MINYOS.ITS.RMIT.EDU.AU)
Sat, 3 May 1997 08:21:38 +1000
On Fri, 2 May 1997, PHMS Media Center wrote:
> -- Why didn't Jews simply move to a new country if they didn't like
> Hitler's laws.
> *******************************************************************
I think for a complete answer to that question you will have to dig in
some of the history books of WWII.
Briefly though at the start of Hitler's rise to power it was still
possible to move to other countries ( if one could afford the move) but
one must remember that the Jews living in the countries where they were
persecuted had been living there in many instances for centuries as well
repected citizens and simply would not have believed that such a
horrenduous persecution could eventuate.
Also later on it wasn't possible to leave. It is a igonominous blot on
many a country that it would not accept jews who were looking for
political asylum. And that's what I mean when I say you will have to
check history books on who would and who wouldnt accept those unfortunate
people.
Acceptance depended on such a lot of things. One minor example, my father
was deemed under the Nazi laws to be half a Jew as his father( who had
changed to Catholicism) had Jewish parents.
Now my father applied for immigration because he could see that life for
his family would not be easy under Nazi rule. He was refused, because
although his children were deemed quarter Jews (Mischling zweiten Grades)
my mother being completely Aryan was not considered in danger under the
Nazi regime. In other words he could have left Austria and taken his
children with him but my mother would have to stay behind.
Lotte Evans
the Vienna schoolgirl of the Memoried panle