ABSTRACT
The outbreak of war and the conquest of Poland made it virtually impossible for Germany to continue pushing Jews out of the territor-ies it controlled, as it had been trying to do ever more intensely since 1938. Now the sheer number of Jews under German rule – multiplied six times over the pre-war Jewish population of all German-controlled areas – frightened potential receiving countries. Moreover, for Britain, France, and other states at war with the Third Reich, Jews from Germany, Austria, and the Czech lands (known since March 1939 as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ) were now legally enemy aliens. Thus, immediately following its declaration of war, Britain cancelled all visas granted previously to refugees seeking to leave those countries.
