Reflections from a teacher on "Flight from the Reich"

Reflections on the October 13 program - "Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946"
(See our original posting with reflections and information on the program here.)

By Cory C., Teacher at Mt. Rainier High School

Robert Jan van Pelt spoke on the topic of his new book Flight From The Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946 this evening at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle. He began his talk by pointing out that the common definition of a victim of the Holocaust typically does not include Jewish refugees. His book is in part an argument for expanding our definition. Jews were affected in myriad ways by the Holocaust, and not only those Jews who went to concentration camps.

This was an unfamiliar topic for me, although I had very recently attended a teacher workshop in which a Jewish refugee shared his story, so I had some minimal background knowledge. What struck me most was van Pelt’s understanding of the concept of the passport. He asked the audience to state the purpose of a passport. Many people gave the most obvious answers: to allow you to leave your country, to be accepted into a country, to have a record of who comes in and who leaves. None of these are wrong per se, but van Pelt sees the passport in a different way. When a country issues a passport to a citizen, that country is saying it will take that person back. If I travel to China, and China decides later that it does not want me, I can be sent back home. This was a crucial issue for Jewish refugees as they were fleeing Germany.

Van Pelt’s discussion this evening was fascinating, and even prompted some discussion among the audience members, including one elderly woman whose relatives were all affected in various ways by the Holocaust. I look forward to reading the book, and incorporating these stories into my unit on the Holocaust.