1 - Jewish Women Exiled in France After 1933

Summary

The history of the émigrés from the Third Reich living in France was a taboo subject for many years. Thus, research on the subject was delayed until the end of the 1970s. Part of the documentation is either stored in French archives, where it is not yet accessible, or has been altogether lost. I shall therefore use the written and oral source material collected to date, as well as my own experience as the survivor of one of these families in exile, to present three main aspects of the topic. These are the demographics of the émigrés from Nazi Germany, particularly Jewish émigrés living in France; their residence status and living conditions up to 1938, the year of crisis; and finally the various stages of persecution by the French and Germans during the war and occupation.

Because “German-Jewish Women in Exile” was the central topic of the Washington conference, “Women in the Emigration after 1933,” referred to in the Introduction, some clarification as to methodology is called for. First, the history of Jewish women in exile, just as the history of women in general, should not be treated as an appendix to but rather as an integral part of a historiography that for centuries has been falsified by silence and omissions. Second, the special situation of women - in all aspects - can be explained only when seen within the context of the historic events of the period, namely, the exile. Third, the term “German-Jewish women” is problematic because many Jewish émigrés from the Reich were not German nationals.