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“The Last Boat”: The Impact of the Encroaching War on Refugee Immigration to the United States, 1938-1941

Tue, December 18, 10:15 to 11:45am, Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, Cityview 1 Ballroom

Abstract

Many American Jews who descend from World War II-era Jewish refugees have “the last boat” as part of their family lore. For some, the phrase is used as a metaphor for a near escape, the immigration visas obtained through luck and determination in the midst of grave danger. For others, “the last boat” is understood as a physical reality: the Nazis were closing in, and the family barely escaped. In reality, there were many last boats, and their departures marked a port’s end as a destination for refugee transit to the United States. Invariably, the closure of the port was due to World War II, and the Nazi-occupation or alignment of the area. A quantitative analysis of the ships, locations, and numbers of self-identified “Hebrews” on board sheds light on the physicality of escape. While the Nazi regime simultaneously stripped Jewish refugees of their wealth while officially encouraging emigration, and while the United States’ strict quota system and rigid bureaucracy limited the number of immigrants and bound the immigration process with red tape, World War II was equally challenging as a barrier to escape. This paper will examine the phenomenon of the “last boat,” highlighting the quantitative effect the closure of ports had on refugees attempting to flee, the State Department’s 1940 “unblocking” of the quota as evidence of the scarcity of shipping, and the memory of the “last boat” in survivor testimony. In the final analysis, the paper will also examine the testimony of refugees arriving in the United States in January 2017, to explore potential parallels in the Jewish refugee experience and the experience of modern-day refugees who feel they, too, were on the “last boat.”

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