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Generation Exodus: The Fate of Young Jewish Refugees from Nazi Germany
Some half a million Jews lived in Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933. Over the next decade, thousands would flee. Among these refugees, teens and young adults formed a remarkable generation. Born between 1914 and 1928 (approximately), they were old enough to appreciate the loss of their homeland and the experience of flight, but often young and flexible enough to survive and even flourish in new environments. Many would go on to make great contributions to their new countries and to the world. Walter Laqueur, himself a distinguished member of this group, offers a unique generational history of the young people whose lives were irrevocably shaped by the rise of the Nazis. They escaped to Palestine and the United States, to the Soviet Union and England, to South America and Shanghai and Australia. Some even remained in Germany, in hiding throughout the war. Some fled with their families and were greeted by friends and relatives in a new home. Others were completely alone, escaping from Germany or Austria through great danger and arriving in foreign lands with no help or support. They come from a variety of backgrounds -- some secular, some observant; some Zionists, some German patriots; some poor, some well-to-do -- but they are united by the experience of flight from Nazi persecution during their formative years. This generation produced such disparate figures as Henry Kissinger and "Dr. Ruth" Westheimer; noted academics and political leaders of both Israel and East Germany; even a Benedictine abbot, a Hindu guru, and a West African chieftain. Drawing on interviews, published and unpublished memoirs, and his own experiences, Walter Laqueur skillfully braids together numerous individual stories and experiences to paint a vivid collective portrait of Generation Exodus.
388 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
46 people want to read
About the author
Walter Laqueur
141 books46 followersWalter Ze'ev Laqueur was an American historian, journalist and political commentator. Laqueur was born in Breslau, Lower Silesia, Prussia (modern Wrocław, Poland), into a Jewish family. In 1938, he left Germany for the British Mandate of Palestine. His parents, who were unable to leave, became victims of the Holocaust.
Laqueur lived in Israel from 1938 to 1953. After one year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he joined a Kibbutz and worked as an agricultural laborer from 1939 to 1944. In 1944, he moved to Jerusalem, where he worked as a journalist until 1953, covering Palestine and other countries in the Middle East.
Since 1955 Laqueur has lived in London. He was founder and editor, with George Mosse, of the Journal of Contemporary History and of Survey from 1956 to 1964. He was also founding editor of The Washington Papers. He was Director of the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library in London from 1965 to 1994. From 1969 he was a member, and later Chairman (until 2000), of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington. He was Professor of the History of Ideas at Brandeis University from 1968 to 1972, and University Professor at Georgetown University from 1976 to 1988. He has also been a visiting professor of history and government at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University.
Laqueur's main works deal with European history in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Russian history and German history, as well as the history of the Middle East. The topics he has written about include the German Youth Movement, Zionism, Israeli history, the cultural history of the Weimar Republic and Russia, Communism, the Holocaust, fascism, and the diplomatic history of the Cold War. His books have been translated into many languages, and he was one of the founders of the study of political violence, guerrilla warfare and terrorism. His comments on international affairs have appeared in many American and European newspapers and periodicals.
(Wikipedia)
Laqueur lived in Israel from 1938 to 1953. After one year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he joined a Kibbutz and worked as an agricultural laborer from 1939 to 1944. In 1944, he moved to Jerusalem, where he worked as a journalist until 1953, covering Palestine and other countries in the Middle East.
Since 1955 Laqueur has lived in London. He was founder and editor, with George Mosse, of the Journal of Contemporary History and of Survey from 1956 to 1964. He was also founding editor of The Washington Papers. He was Director of the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library in London from 1965 to 1994. From 1969 he was a member, and later Chairman (until 2000), of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington. He was Professor of the History of Ideas at Brandeis University from 1968 to 1972, and University Professor at Georgetown University from 1976 to 1988. He has also been a visiting professor of history and government at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University.
Laqueur's main works deal with European history in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Russian history and German history, as well as the history of the Middle East. The topics he has written about include the German Youth Movement, Zionism, Israeli history, the cultural history of the Weimar Republic and Russia, Communism, the Holocaust, fascism, and the diplomatic history of the Cold War. His books have been translated into many languages, and he was one of the founders of the study of political violence, guerrilla warfare and terrorism. His comments on international affairs have appeared in many American and European newspapers and periodicals.
(Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 16, 2016
I gave this book 3 stars only because by and large, it is not a page turner. But it is an important contribution to the literature on the holocaust. It is sobering and informative in the extreme. It is well worth plowing through.
The breadth of material sifted for this book by Walter Laqueur is breathtaking. The book is a look at the dispersal of European Jewish refugees just before and after the holocaust. He must have combed through thousands of letters—between siblings, parents and children, lovers, newlyweds, friends. Hopes are dashed. Suffering evolves into determination. Disappointment is transformed into idealism. The tragedies cannot be erased, but new dreams emerge. Life goes on, often in surprising ways.
The book is wisely divided into clever categories that help trace the peregrinations of the Jewish masses fleeing the Nazi regime. The chapters reflect those categories: Escape; Resistance; Israel; United States; Britain: Forever Refugees?; The Great Dispersal: Hotel Bolivia and Hotel Shanghai; Returning to Germany; Portrait of a Generation.
Some of what Laqueur has to say is both sobering and astonishing. Consider:
"Fate disbursed them all over the globe, but many of them made their mark, largely, no doubt, out of dire necessity. … [Many had] hair raising adventures ... They had as much excitement and danger in a day, in an hour, as normal people, in normal circumstances would face in a lifetime. ... On the whole, they did rather well, perhaps because they had to start from scratch, because there was no helping hand, no safety net. For them, it was a question of swimming or sinking. For some of this generation it can certainly be said that but for Hitler and the Nazis they never would have gone as far as they did."
When he looks at “resistance,” he looks at the big picture, not just at underground resistance to Nazis in Europe, but to the impulse to fight fascism even after release from imminent danger. Jews who escaped the Nazis enlisted in British, American, and Jewish military groups. Native German speakers helped in intelligence on many continents. One Walter Eichenbaum, a German refugee who became a sergeant in the U.S. Army, spotted German soldiers dressed in U.S. uniforms. He shouted orders to them in German and took the whole unit prisoner. He was awarded the Silver Star.
The idealism of those who went to Palestine contrasted with those who simply wished to start anew. Those in the latter category headed for England, the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, South America. Since each of those countries had strict quotas, many candidates ended up at their final destinations after sojourns in Shanghai and Bolivia. Shanghai was then under Japanese rule. The Jews who sojourned there were later known as “Shanghailanders.” Idealists who went to Palestine found that they were suspected of not being dedicated enough; of not mastering Hebrew quickly enough; of wanting to perpetuate German culture even while forging a new national identity in what would soon be Israel. Huge numbers of these pioneers were felled by malaria. Others were caught in battle with Arabs who resented and resisted the arrival of ever more Jews. In several countries, Jews were sometimes seen as “enemy aliens.” In Britain, many were incarcerated on the Isle of Man. Jews were sometimes thought to be part of the infamous (and fictitious) “fifth column,” without whom Hitler could not have succeeded.
Many Jews who came to the US were dubbed the “allrightniks;” they thought everything in the US was dandy. Others, who continued to speak German, were mocked for standing outside in “gossip groups” conversing in German. The German-Jewish community that sprang up in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood was sometimes called “the fourth Reich.”
Many would-be refugees assembled necessary papers only to find themselves barred. Australia, Canada and South Africa had policies that essentially decreed: Refugees Need Not Apply. In South Africa, the Aliens Bill closed the doors of the country. The three Jewish members of the SA parliament voted for that bill. Jewish leaders feared a backlash. There were Nazi & pro-Nazi parties in all three places. After 1936, Jews with South African relations, and independently wealthy Jews were allowed entry.
Every book chapter is replete with names. By citing so many individuals, by giving them histories, identities, unique life experiences, Laqueur drives home the scope of the horror. It is a phenomenon similar to that created by homing in on a single victim, as happens when the story of Anne Frank is told. Her story has reverberated around the world. Many know of the holocaust only through her diary. Telling the story of a single life can be far more potent than talking numbers, six million, which becomes pure abstraction. Despite the number, and maybe even because of the number, the scope of the catastrophe is impossible to fathom. In this book, Laqueur introduces characters who we can see and hear. Each individual is endowed with interests, talents, family, longing, history, plans and connections. They have names. They are real.
Among the countless names mentioned are the philosopher, Martin Buber and literary critic, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, sometimes called the pope of German literature. Reich-Ranicki, who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto, coined the term “Heimat” to denote the idea of a portable homeland. For him, German literature was that Heimat. Reich-Ranicki wrote Jakob the Liar, the story of a Jew in a ghetto who, in order to hearten his fellow Jews, spreads stories that the advancing Russians are much nearer than they are.
For me, one of the surprises was learning that the renowned novelist and screenwriter, Ruth Prawer-Jhabwala, was Jewish. Her family escaped to England in 1938, when she was twelve. When she was 21, her father committed suicide, having learned the fate of his family: 40 relatives had died in the camps. She went on to write many novels and to earn a Booker Prize. She wrote 23 screenplays written for the Merchant-Ivory franchise. Two of her screenplays were awarded Oscars.
One of the pleasures of this book was discovering a photo of the young Ernest Fontheim, a friend and long-standing resident of Ann Arbor. Fontheim’s stories, two of which are included in Laqueur’s book, are hair-raising adventures that required quick thinking and decisive action to avoid discovery. Discovery would have meant certain deportation, if not death. Like many of his fellow refugees, Fontheim later forged an academic career. He became a physicist. He spent most of the war years in hiding the family of the girl who became his wife. They raised three children, all of whom have proudly protected their Jewish heritage.
The breadth of material sifted for this book by Walter Laqueur is breathtaking. The book is a look at the dispersal of European Jewish refugees just before and after the holocaust. He must have combed through thousands of letters—between siblings, parents and children, lovers, newlyweds, friends. Hopes are dashed. Suffering evolves into determination. Disappointment is transformed into idealism. The tragedies cannot be erased, but new dreams emerge. Life goes on, often in surprising ways.
The book is wisely divided into clever categories that help trace the peregrinations of the Jewish masses fleeing the Nazi regime. The chapters reflect those categories: Escape; Resistance; Israel; United States; Britain: Forever Refugees?; The Great Dispersal: Hotel Bolivia and Hotel Shanghai; Returning to Germany; Portrait of a Generation.
Some of what Laqueur has to say is both sobering and astonishing. Consider:
"Fate disbursed them all over the globe, but many of them made their mark, largely, no doubt, out of dire necessity. … [Many had] hair raising adventures ... They had as much excitement and danger in a day, in an hour, as normal people, in normal circumstances would face in a lifetime. ... On the whole, they did rather well, perhaps because they had to start from scratch, because there was no helping hand, no safety net. For them, it was a question of swimming or sinking. For some of this generation it can certainly be said that but for Hitler and the Nazis they never would have gone as far as they did."
When he looks at “resistance,” he looks at the big picture, not just at underground resistance to Nazis in Europe, but to the impulse to fight fascism even after release from imminent danger. Jews who escaped the Nazis enlisted in British, American, and Jewish military groups. Native German speakers helped in intelligence on many continents. One Walter Eichenbaum, a German refugee who became a sergeant in the U.S. Army, spotted German soldiers dressed in U.S. uniforms. He shouted orders to them in German and took the whole unit prisoner. He was awarded the Silver Star.
The idealism of those who went to Palestine contrasted with those who simply wished to start anew. Those in the latter category headed for England, the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, South America. Since each of those countries had strict quotas, many candidates ended up at their final destinations after sojourns in Shanghai and Bolivia. Shanghai was then under Japanese rule. The Jews who sojourned there were later known as “Shanghailanders.” Idealists who went to Palestine found that they were suspected of not being dedicated enough; of not mastering Hebrew quickly enough; of wanting to perpetuate German culture even while forging a new national identity in what would soon be Israel. Huge numbers of these pioneers were felled by malaria. Others were caught in battle with Arabs who resented and resisted the arrival of ever more Jews. In several countries, Jews were sometimes seen as “enemy aliens.” In Britain, many were incarcerated on the Isle of Man. Jews were sometimes thought to be part of the infamous (and fictitious) “fifth column,” without whom Hitler could not have succeeded.
Many Jews who came to the US were dubbed the “allrightniks;” they thought everything in the US was dandy. Others, who continued to speak German, were mocked for standing outside in “gossip groups” conversing in German. The German-Jewish community that sprang up in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood was sometimes called “the fourth Reich.”
Many would-be refugees assembled necessary papers only to find themselves barred. Australia, Canada and South Africa had policies that essentially decreed: Refugees Need Not Apply. In South Africa, the Aliens Bill closed the doors of the country. The three Jewish members of the SA parliament voted for that bill. Jewish leaders feared a backlash. There were Nazi & pro-Nazi parties in all three places. After 1936, Jews with South African relations, and independently wealthy Jews were allowed entry.
Every book chapter is replete with names. By citing so many individuals, by giving them histories, identities, unique life experiences, Laqueur drives home the scope of the horror. It is a phenomenon similar to that created by homing in on a single victim, as happens when the story of Anne Frank is told. Her story has reverberated around the world. Many know of the holocaust only through her diary. Telling the story of a single life can be far more potent than talking numbers, six million, which becomes pure abstraction. Despite the number, and maybe even because of the number, the scope of the catastrophe is impossible to fathom. In this book, Laqueur introduces characters who we can see and hear. Each individual is endowed with interests, talents, family, longing, history, plans and connections. They have names. They are real.
Among the countless names mentioned are the philosopher, Martin Buber and literary critic, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, sometimes called the pope of German literature. Reich-Ranicki, who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto, coined the term “Heimat” to denote the idea of a portable homeland. For him, German literature was that Heimat. Reich-Ranicki wrote Jakob the Liar, the story of a Jew in a ghetto who, in order to hearten his fellow Jews, spreads stories that the advancing Russians are much nearer than they are.
For me, one of the surprises was learning that the renowned novelist and screenwriter, Ruth Prawer-Jhabwala, was Jewish. Her family escaped to England in 1938, when she was twelve. When she was 21, her father committed suicide, having learned the fate of his family: 40 relatives had died in the camps. She went on to write many novels and to earn a Booker Prize. She wrote 23 screenplays written for the Merchant-Ivory franchise. Two of her screenplays were awarded Oscars.
One of the pleasures of this book was discovering a photo of the young Ernest Fontheim, a friend and long-standing resident of Ann Arbor. Fontheim’s stories, two of which are included in Laqueur’s book, are hair-raising adventures that required quick thinking and decisive action to avoid discovery. Discovery would have meant certain deportation, if not death. Like many of his fellow refugees, Fontheim later forged an academic career. He became a physicist. He spent most of the war years in hiding the family of the girl who became his wife. They raised three children, all of whom have proudly protected their Jewish heritage.
May 10, 2021
This is an excellent book regarding those who were forced out because of their religion.
This book reminded me a lot of a like a Sociology book, following the paths of people who had to relocate from Germany.
It was quite an intriguing read how they talk about the generation of like 13-20 year olds and how they navigated WWII.
It then talked about where they dispersed to and then how their children handled things...it was actually a really cool book regarding what happened during and after the war.
This book reminded me a lot of a like a Sociology book, following the paths of people who had to relocate from Germany.
It was quite an intriguing read how they talk about the generation of like 13-20 year olds and how they navigated WWII.
It then talked about where they dispersed to and then how their children handled things...it was actually a really cool book regarding what happened during and after the war.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews