From Europe to Mexico: The Unexpected Journey of Thirty Jewish Families Escaping Nazism

Abstract

Despite Mexico’s highly restrictive policy toward Jewish refugees during the 1930s and the Second World War, nearly two thousand Jewish refugees fleeing from Nazism managed to enter the country. While previous historiography has primarily focused on government policies toward Jewish refugees, it has paid little attention to the experiences of those who actually arrived in Mexico. This article fills this gap by analyzing the forced migration and transit process of thirty Jewish refugee families who arrived in Mexico between 1937 and 1949. Mexico emerged as a crucial option for refugees throughout their flight when they utilized and established transnational links that would ultimately lay the groundwork for their rescue. By expanding the field of Holocaust studies to encompass the experiences of refugees in Latin America, this study provides important insights into the global dynamics of the Holocaust.