Nearly the new world : the British West Indies and the flight from Nazism, 1933-1945 / Joanna Newman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Newman, Joanna, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--West Indies, British--History--20th century.

Jews.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford : Berghahn, [2019]

Summary:

“In this rich and resonant study, Joanna Newman recounts the little-known story of this Jewish exodus to the British West Indies.”—Times Higher Education In the years leading up to the Second World War, increasingly desperate European Jews looked to far-flung destinations such as Barbados, Trinidad, and Jamaica in search of refuge from the horrors of Hitler’s Europe. Nearly the New World tells the extraordinary story of Jewish refugees who overcame persecution and sought safety in the West Indies from the 1930s through the end of the war. At the same time, it gives an unsparing account of the xenophobia and bureaucratic infighting that nearly prevented their rescue—and that helped to seal the fate of countless other European Jews for whom escape was never an option. From the introduction: This book is called Nearly the New World because for most refugees who found sanctuary, it was nearly, but not quite, the New World that they had hoped for. The British West Indies were a way station, a temporary destination that allowed them entry when the United States, much of South and Central America, the United Kingdom and Palestine had all become closed. For a small number, it became their home. This is the first comprehensive study of modern Jewish emigration to the British West Indies. It reveals how the histories of the Caribbean, of refugees, and of the Holocaust connect through the potential and actual involvement of the British West Indies as a refuge during the 1930s and the Second World War.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Part I Introductions

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Contextual Drivers The British West Indies, the Colonial Office and Jewish Refugee Organizations

Part II Confronting the Need for Refuge

Chapter 2 Jews Seeking Refuge, 1933–1938

Chapter 3 Panic Migration: The British West Indies and the Refugee Crisis of 1938–1939

Part III Confronting the Need for Rescue

Chapter 4 Boat People

Chapter 5 Internment, Camps and Missed Opportunities

Epilogue

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-80758-581-6

1-78920-334-1

OCLC:

1347247445