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Hitler’s Jewish Refugees in Portugal: Marion Kaplan and Elhanan Diesendruck in conversation

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The Wiener Holocaust Library is delighted to host an in-conversation with Professor Marion Kaplan and Elhanan Diesendruck, led by Dr Daniel Lee, about the dramatic experiences of Jewish refugees who fled the Nazi regime and who lived in limbo in Portugal until they could reach safer havens abroad. Portugal's dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar, admitted the largest number of Jews fleeing westward - tens of thousands of them - but then set his secret police on those who did not move along quickly enough. Yet, Portugal's people left a lasting impression on refugees for their kindness and generosity.

Kaplan’s work, Hitler’s Jewish Refugees: Hope and Anxiety in Portugal, draws attention not only to the social and physical upheavals these refugees experienced, but also highlights their feelings as they fled their homes and histories, while having to beg strangers for kindness. An emotional history of fleeing, her book probes how specific locations touched refugees’ inner lives, including the borders they nervously crossed or the overcrowded transatlantic ships that signalled their liberation.

The documentary, Jewish Refugees in Portugal during World War II, which explores Elhanan Diesendruck’s family’s rich and storied history in Lisbon, is one of the few documentaries dealing with this topic and provides a political, economic and social-historical framework for understanding the experiences of the Jewish refugees and Lisbon Jewish community. A short clip of the documentary will be shown during this online event.
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