Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Prologue: Jewish Women in Nazi Germany Before Emigration
- Part One A Global Search for Refuge
- Part Two Refuge in the United States
- 12 Women's Role in the German-Jewish Immigrant Community
- 13 “Listen sensitively and act spontaneously - but skillfully”: Selfhelp: An Eyewitness Report
- 14 “My only hope”: The National Council of Jewish Women's Rescue and Aid for German-Jewish Refugees
- 15 The Genossinen and the Khaverim: Socialist Women from the German-Speaking Lands and the American Jewish Labor Movement, 1933-1945
- 16 New Women in Exile: German Women Doctors and the Emigration
- 17 Women Emigré Psychologists and Psychoanalysts in the United States
- 18 Destination Social Work: Emigrés in a Women's Profession
- 19 Chicken Farming: Not a Dream but a Nightmare: An Eyewitness Report
- 20 The Occupation of Women Emigrés: Women Lawyers in the United States
- 21 Fashioning Fortuna's Whim: German-Speaking Women Emigrant Historians in the United States
- 22 Exile or Emigration: Social Democratic Women Members of the Reichstag in the United States
- 23 Women's Voices in American Exile
- Epilogue: The First Sex
- Index
14 - “My only hope”: The National Council of Jewish Women's Rescue and Aid for German-Jewish Refugees
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Prologue: Jewish Women in Nazi Germany Before Emigration
- Part One A Global Search for Refuge
- Part Two Refuge in the United States
- 12 Women's Role in the German-Jewish Immigrant Community
- 13 “Listen sensitively and act spontaneously - but skillfully”: Selfhelp: An Eyewitness Report
- 14 “My only hope”: The National Council of Jewish Women's Rescue and Aid for German-Jewish Refugees
- 15 The Genossinen and the Khaverim: Socialist Women from the German-Speaking Lands and the American Jewish Labor Movement, 1933-1945
- 16 New Women in Exile: German Women Doctors and the Emigration
- 17 Women Emigré Psychologists and Psychoanalysts in the United States
- 18 Destination Social Work: Emigrés in a Women's Profession
- 19 Chicken Farming: Not a Dream but a Nightmare: An Eyewitness Report
- 20 The Occupation of Women Emigrés: Women Lawyers in the United States
- 21 Fashioning Fortuna's Whim: German-Speaking Women Emigrant Historians in the United States
- 22 Exile or Emigration: Social Democratic Women Members of the Reichstag in the United States
- 23 Women's Voices in American Exile
- Epilogue: The First Sex
- Index
Summary
The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) was “my only hope ” recalled a German-Jewish refugee in 1940.1 “Walter ” was one of a few thousand German-Jewish refugees from Nazism who emigrated to the United States between 1933 and 1941. Council intervention even helped a few Jews escape Europe in the years before the United States entered the war. The NCJW located refugees' relatives trapped in Europe and attempted to secure their release. In some cases, they succeeded.
Most of the NCJW's war work, however, was devoted to protecting thousands of refugees as soon as they put foot on American docks. When German-Jewish refugees first arrived in the United States, a National Council of Jewish Women social worker or volunteer was often the first person to greet them upon arrival. The NCJW helped these émigréss find a home, employment, and social services; educated them in American customs and citizenship requirements; and lobbied tirelessly for legislation to lift immigrant quotas, ease naturalization requirements, and protect aliens' legal rights.
Despite these accomplishments, this chapter suggests that NCJW members were severely hampered by their status as women, Jews, and of German origin. United States government agencies and male Jewish leadership severely restricted the Council's activities, and the NCJW nearly tore itself apart through its own internal disagreements and conflicts with other agencies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Between Sorrow and StrengthWomen Refugees of the Nazi Period, pp. 191 - 204Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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