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Republicanism on the borders: Jewish activism and the refugee crisis in Strasbourg and Nice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2015

MEREDITH L. SCOTT-WEAVER
MEREDITH L. SCOTT-WEAVER*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Political Science, York College of Pennsylvania, 441 Country Club Road, York, PA 17403–3651, USA
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Abstract:

This case-study of Jewish activism in Strasbourg and Nice, interwar urban locales situated along the frontiers with National Socialist Germany and fascist Italy, respectively, examines critical facets of Jewish advocacy during the refugee crisis of the 1930s. It focuses on how urban spaces engendered dense thickets of community activism unlike that which took place in Paris. Whereas friction and ineffectiveness characterized aid efforts in Paris, these cities offer alternative views on the nature of the refugee crisis in France and the ways that Jews overcame obstacles to help asylum-seekers. It advances much-needed discourse on the complexity of French Jewish experiences during the interwar years and highlights the city as both location and a conduit for diverse activist strategies. Although circumstances varied in Strasbourg and Nice, Jews in these two borderland cities followed similar patterns of engaging urban civil society to build flexible networks that addressed the plight of refugees from multiple angles.

Type
Special section: Beyond the Pletzl: Jewish urban histories in interwar France
Information
Urban History , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , November 2016 , pp. 599 - 617
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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31 Préfet du Bas-Rhin from Commissaire Divisionnaire, 18 Oct. 1933, ADBR 286D 383.

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52 Ibid .

53 Although not specified, Dr Schwartz may have been with the Joint Distribution Committee.

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55 Report No. 28, 5 Jan. 1939, ADAM 4M 1343; to Ministre Bonnet from Union Magna Charta, 5 Jan. 1939, ADAM 4M 1343.

56 Déclaration de Constitution d’une Association, Société de Haute Charité des Dames Israélites, 12 Jul. 1939, ADAM 4M 365.

57 Déclaration de Constitution d’une Association, 28 Feb. 1939, ADAM 4M 365; Comité d’Assistance aux Refugiés, 8 Oct. 1939, ADAM 4M 365.

58 Déclaration de Constitution d’une Association, 28 Feb. 1939, ADAM 4M 365; Comité d’Assistance aux Refugiés, 8 Oct. 1939, ADAM 4M 365; Statuts adoptés par l’Assemblée Générale, 28 Feb. 1939, ADAM 4M 365.

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid

61 ‘Nice: une éloquente manifestation d’union au Comité d’Assistance aux Refugiés’, 19 Jan. 1939, clipping in AIU, MS 650, dossier 60.

62 Report 7569, Directeur de Police d’État, 1 Jul. 1939, ADAM 4M 166.

63 Ibid .

64 To Robert Schumann from Marcel Lowenstein, 6 Apr. 1939, AIU, MS 650, dossier 28; Voigt, ‘Les naufragés’, 168.

65 Voigt, ‘Les naufragés’, 168.

66 Report 7569, 1 Jul. 1939, ADAM 4M 166.

67 Voigt, ‘Les naufragés’, 170.

68 Ibid ., 174.

69 To M. le Directeur du SNCF from J. Babani, 9 Dec. 1938, AIU, MS 650, dossier 28; to Robert Schumann from Marcel Lowenstein, Nice, 6 Apr. 1939, AIU, MS 650, dossier 28.

70 To Robert Schumann from Marcel Lowenstein, 6 Apr. 1939, AIU, MS 650, dossier 28.

71 Ibid .; Voigt, ‘Les naufragés’, 167–8.

72 Report 2107, Directeur de Police d’État, 7 Aug. 1939, ADAM 4M 170; Report 2063, Directeur de Police d’État, 4 Aug. 1939, ADAM 4M 170.

73 Ibid .

74 Bordes et al., Histoire de Nice, 410.

75 ‘Modifications des Statuts votés par l’Assemblée Générale’, 23 Feb. 1941, ADAM 4M 365.

76 Harvey, Rebel Cities, 4.