This is the first English-language memoir of the Jewish refugee
experience in wartime Switzerland focusing on children's
experiences and daily life in the refugee camps. The author
integrates her memories of a refugee childhood with archival and
historical research, including interviews. Fleeing the Nazis, the
author's family was among the 25,000 Jews who sought refuge in
Switzerland. The refugee camps were administered by Swiss
government authorities with a peculiar mix of rigidity and
compassion. Families were frequently separated, with men in one
camp, and women and children in another. Thousands of refugee
children were placed in foster care; many of them with non-Jewish
foster families. At the same time, the refugees were allowed
unparalleled scope for religious and cultural expression. Torn from
a Jewish world that was fast disappearing, the refugees created a
remarkable cultural life in the camps including educational
programs for children and adults, vocational training, art classes
for children, newspapers, theater productions, religious programs,
music, lectures, and study groups. Paying particular attention to
the experiences of women and children, the author explores the
response of the Swiss Jewish community, and interviews some of the
men and women who dealt with the refugees, including former welfare
workers, camp administrators, and foster families. Research in the
archives of the Swiss government, as well as of Jewish
organizations, uncovers a treasure trove of official documents,
along with refugee correspondence, photographs and children's art
created in the camps. Original French, German, and Yiddish
documents are translated into English for the first time to reveal
the heated public debates about Switzerland's refugee policy and
about the treatment of Jewish refugees.
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