This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Greg Burgess's important new study explores the short life of the High Commission for Refugees (Jewish and Other) Coming from Germany, from its creation by the League of Nations in October 1933 to the resignation of High Commissioner, James G. McDonald, in December 1935. The book relates the history of the first stage of refugees from Germany through the prism of McDonald and the High Commission. It analyses the factors that shaped the Commission's formation, the undertakings the Commission embarked upon and its eventual failure owing to external complications. The League of Nations and the Refugees from Nazi Germany argues that, in spite of the Commission's failure, the refugees from Nazi Germany and the High Commission's work mark a turn in conceptions of international humanitarian responsibilities when a state defies standards of proper behaviour towards its citizens. From this point on, it was no longer considered sufficient or acceptable for states to respect the sovereign rights of another if the rights of citizens were being violated. Greg Burgess discusses this idea, amongst others, in detail as part of what is a crucial volume for all scholars and students of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and modern Jewish history.

This topical new study of France's tradition as the 'land of asylum' for refugees examines the tensions between refugee rights and government responses. Refuge in the Land of Liberty gives historical context and depth to current issues such as citizenship, assimilation and national identity; provides new and original historical research on an important topic previously under-studied; and situates French refugee history within wider European context. It examines changing responses towards refugees in modern France through French legal, intellectual, political and social history. Critical questions in the book frame debates and policy: whether individuals had a natural human right to receive asylum and whether refugee policy was a matter for national government, or international agreement.

This book recounts France's responses to refugees from the liberation of Paris in 1944 to the end of the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia in 1995. It questions whether France fulfilled the promise of asylum for those persecuted for the 'cause of liberty' made in its Constitution of 1946. Post-war development and the demand for immigrant workers were favourable to refugees from the Communist east, from Franco's Spain, from Hungary after insurrection of 1956, and later from Latin America and Indochina. Asylum developed nationally in conjunction with international developments, the interventions of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the adoption of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Economic ruptures in the 1970s, however, and the appearance of refugees from Asia and Africa, led to the assertion of national priorities and brought about a sense of crisis, and questions about whether France could continue to fulfil its promise.

This book examines changing responses towards refugees in modern France through French legal, intellectual, political and social history. Critical questions framed debates and policy: whether individuals had a natural human right to receive asylum and whether refugee policy was a matter for national government, or international agreement.

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Greg Burgess's important new study explores the short life of the High Commission for Refugees (Jewish and Other) Coming from Germany, from its creation by the League of Nations in October 1933 to the resignation of High Commissioner, James G. McDonald, in December 1935. The book relates the history of the first stage of refugees from Germany through the prism of McDonald and the High Commission. It analyses the factors that shaped the Commission's formation, the undertakings the Commission embarked upon and its eventual failure owing to external complications. The League of Nations and the Refugees from Nazi Germany argues that, in spite of the Commission's failure, the refugees from Nazi Germany and the High Commission's work mark a turn in conceptions of international humanitarian responsibilities when a state defies standards of proper behaviour towards its citizens. From this point on, it was no longer considered sufficient or acceptable for states to respect the sovereign rights of another if the rights of citizens were being violated. Greg Burgess discusses this idea, amongst others, in detail as part of what is a crucial volume for all scholars and students of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and modern Jewish history.