Language:
Dutch
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Les Cahiers de la Mémoire Contemporaine
Angaben zur Quelle:
3 (2001) 13-21
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jewish refugees
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Discusses Belgian policies toward refugees from Germany. In 1933, 5,000 German Jews requested visas to enter Belgium. The Belgian government was not eager to have them, as there was an economic crisis at the time and rampant unemployment. German Jews attempted to enter Belgium illegally; several thousand were arrested and returned to Germany. The Belgian authorities refused to make any exception for Jews, not recognizing their plight as life-threatening. However, Belgian Jews proposed that they would support their fellow Jews so long as they were able to emigrate to another country, to which the government agreed. In 1938, the government closed its borders to all illegal immigrants from Nazi Germany, but from 24 October the Jews were again accepted with a temporary residence permit. It became very difficult for the Jewish committees to finance the flow of refugees, and in 1939 they requested and received credit for several million francs from the government. After the German occupation in May 1940, the German Jews were deported to camps in France.
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