Advent

Abstract

When the first refugees arrived in the United States soon after the change of government in Germany in January 1933, the country was still in the grip of the Great Depression that had started with the Black Friday of October 1929. Millions of Americans were out of work, and the popular sentiment was thoroughly unsympathetic to new immigrants. In addition to the restrictive attitudes and policies toward immigration in general (see below), anti-Semitism was strong, with “quotas” at universities, difficulty in entering many professions, or even housing—and the majority of the refugees were Jewish. These factors created an unfavorable situation for most of the refugees and would-be refugees.