Emigration in the early 1930s
The coming to power of Adolf Hitler and his NSDAP in 1933 led to an exodus of citizens from Germany. Those who left were mostly Jewish, political dissidents or both.
On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler became Reich Chancellor of Germany. This gave him the opportunity to implement his ideas from Mein Kampf. After the Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933, he suspended key civil rights. Anti-Semitic ordinances were also passed making it impossible for Jews to practice the most important professions by requiring a so-called 'Aryan' certificate. In response to these measures and the boycott on 1 April 1933 of Jewish shopkeepers, doctors and lawyers, many Jews left Germany. They initially sought safe haven in surrounding countries, including the Netherlands.[1] In the first days of April 1933 alone, hundreds fled to the Netherlands, including Otto Frank. In the months that followed, he was followed by his wife and both daughters.[2]
Footnotes
- ^ Bob Moore, Refugees from Nazi Germany in the Netherlands, 1933-1940, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1986.
- ^ Zie: Gertjan Broek, Emigranten rond het Achterhuis van Anne Frank, in: De moderne tijd, jrg. 3, nr. 3 (2019), p. 211-226.