"Flight from the Reich"

On Wednesday, October 13, Robert Jan van Pelt spoke to a room full of educators, students, and members of the community interested in the topics of the Holocaust, genocide, and refugees.

Van Pelt is a world renowned Holocaust scholar and author. He is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Robert Jan van Pelt spoke on this evening about his most recent book, Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946.

We asked those educators wanting clock hours to write up something from the evening's presentation that stood out to them. Below are a few of these reflections. We will continue to add to this post as we receive submissions.

------------------

By Helena B.

Robert Jan van Pelt’s talk revealed the way Holocaust studies has broadened its parameters to encompass the plight of refugees and weave the stories of those who “escaped” into the broader narrative of suffering and endurance. Using passports, visas, and documents as a unifying trope, van Pelt examines the plight of over one million Jews who fled the Reich, were deported from nation to nation, or rebuilt their lives in places as foreign as Shanghai. I appreciated how van Pelt exposed the contradiction of terms that inevitably emerges in a discussion of statelessness, border crossing, and transnational existence. Take, for example, the case of Anne Frank, who holds place in popular thought as a Dutch citizen, when in reality, her family had fled Nazi Germany and sought temporary refuge in Amsterdam. Or the conundrum that if a passport serves as a kind of legal guarantee—as assurance that the issuing country will unconditionally welcome back the holder into its jurisdiction—then a refugee with a passport, by definition, cannot exist. I found van Pelt’s analysis of contradictory terms and paper documents to be a provocative and useful means of grappling with his central question: “Who belongs to this history?”

I was also particularly struck by van Pelt’s analysis of the demographics of the exodus. French and British sponsored kindertransports, for example, were the result of political negotiation more than an acute and abiding sense of moral obligation. According to van Pelt, “We’ll take the children, if it will appease the public and excuse us from dealing with their parents” was the general consensus in British parliament. Moreover, although the Nazis requested that the Slovaks ship only young and able Jews for slave labor in concentration camps, the Slovak “all or nothing, old and young” response was, at least in part, responsible for the Final Solution in the sense that it prompted the Nazis to conduct their first systematic extermination based on age. Finally, young refugees (and young female refugees in particular) had a higher chance of survival and success post-exodus, for it was much easier for them to both secure proper documentation and rebuild their lives in a new place. Van Pelt’s decision to place lesser-examined topics like demographics and family dynamics in the context of diaspora and flight was a fresh approach to Holocaust scholarship. Refugees did not exist as an isolated group with wholly disparate experiences from those who stayed behind and found themselves trapped inside death camps. Indeed, theirs was a trauma with its own particular horrors, but with the same basic and ineffable suffering—the experience of living out terror, suddenly losing everything one knows and everything one holds dear.

------

By Erika M.

The lecture given by Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt on October 13th was engaging and informative on the topic of Jewish refugees in the Holocaust.

I studied the history of the Holocaust at university and found my knowledge of the plight of refugees to be very limited. I was totally unaware of the numbers of Jews who escaped through Shanghai and the ease of attaining visas from the Japanese consulate. It was interesting to hear of the bureaucrats who offered escape to Jews in Europe regardless of the mandates from their government.

I often find myself focusing on the larger facts of the Holocaust and the chronological progression of events instead of the stories behind the story. For example, I have read The Diary of Anne Frank and am familiar with Frank’s story of hiding but wasn’t aware of the reasoning behind Otto Frank’s timely decision to escape to Holland before there was the sense of urgency found after 1939. It was with personal stories that van Pelt reiterated the truth that the refugee experience was different for everyone. This truth was echoed by comments from attendees who were the children of refugees.

I also appreciated the stories van Pelt shared including the tale of the Swiss spinster who copied letters between separated parents and children. To me it revealed the goodness of humanity in a time of such darkness with which parents tried to offer as much support and guidance to their children. I now look forward to increasing my knowledge on the topic as I read Flight from the Reich.

--------------

By Keith M.

Dr. Van Pelt’s presentation allowed me to delve deeper into my own understanding of the mass removal and escape of Jews during the Holocaust. We often hear about the many stories of success in leaving Nazi Germany or Nazi occupation, but, as we discovered from Dr. Van Pelt, the plight of German Jews and Jews in German-occupied lands continued with the lack of interest of many countries, the United States included, in providing safeguard for many because immigration guidelines that limited widespread passage for many Jews, ultimately leading to capture and death within concentration camps. At the heart of Dr. Van Pelt’s stories and experiences is one important fact – we can never let our borders to safety be closed to those in need because of our own fears. Yet, we still see these experiences in the Sudan, in the former Yugoslavia, and in China. These must stop, and Dr. Van Pelt’s book is our own journal into the mistakes that were made by all, even those aiming to help.

------

Stephanie N.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend Dr. Robert Jan Van Pelt’s lecture on Flight from The Reich: Refugee Jews 1933-1946. The experience in attending Dr. Van Pelt brought to light the refugee experience for Jews over a 13 year period. I think this was an area I had not really studied or been taught before. It was great to have a chance to hear an expert in the topic share his knowledge as well as having the opportunity to purchase his book on the subject.

Learning how a passport was essential to life and how if you did not have one you were in a very bad place without the possibility for gaining freedom in another country. I enjoyed the resources he shared from his book and that the book had elements I had not been taught before. I appreciate having the opportunity to learn more about the Holocaust by attending Dr. Van Pelt’s book talk.