ABSTRACT
In contrast to the Basques from the Spanish Civil War, the refugee movement from the Third Reich was less systematic until 1938. By the outbreak of war some 350,000 refugees had escaped Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia,1 but this disguises the important year-to-year variations in numbers seeking and finding asylum. The foremost factor affecting the pattern of flight was the level and intensity of Nazi persecution (and the growing proximity of war) so that for the Jews especially, the 18 months after the Anschluss in March 1938 were crucial. Nevertheless, other considerations, particularly the availability and suitability of places of asylum, were paramount in individual decisions that were made to escape persecution. Britain became in the months before September 1939 the most important haven for those fleeing Nazi oppression. Its alien entry procedures were gently eased and rescue schemes were created at a point when other countries intensified their restrictionism. As with the 1920s, no country can be viewed in isolation: the problem was so great that an international response was required.2
