Fleeing from the Nazis
'1) Can I still write about what moves me in Germany? 2) From a moral perspective, can I still live in G. without betraying those who no longer can? 3) Can I sustain myself in G.?' (1)
Shortly after the Nazis came to power in March 1933, the well-known German-Jewish writer Arnold Zweig posed these questions in his notebook. A month later his books were publicly burnt, alongside those of many other authors who did not conform to Nazi ideology, and Zweig went into exile.
After Adolf Hitler was elected in Germany, the Nazis immediately began persecuting their political adversaries - Communists, Socialists and anti-Fascists. At the same time, they began discriminating against anyone deemed Jewish according to Nazi laws. Jews were increasingly excluded from public life, forced to sell their businesses for a fraction of their real value and Jewish children were made to attend separate schools.
In March 1938 Hitler marched into Austria, greeted by adoring crowds welcoming the Nazis and their ideology. Austria was declared part of Germany and so ceased to exist as an independent country. Refugees from the Nazis who had settled in Austria after 1933, as well as Austrian Communists and anti-Fascists were forced to flee or face arrest. Jews in Austria - who had significantly contributed to so much of the cultural and economic life of the country since the turn of the century - especially feared for their lives.
There was almost no time to make preparations for departure and the number of refugees seeking sanctuary in Britain and elsewhere increased dramatically. By September 1939 - when war was declared - about 340,000 German and Austrian Jews had fled to countries across the globe.