Dominican Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosúa, 1940–1945
September 15 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT
Featuring Dr. Marion Kaplan
Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History Emerita, New York University
As National Hispanic Heritage Month begins, join us for the remarkable story of one of the Holocaust’s least-known rescue efforts.
During the Second World War, the Dominican Republic became the only country in the Americas to officially welcome large numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Thousands applied for refuge, and several hundred ultimately rebuilt their lives in the small agricultural community of Sosúa on the island’s northern coast.
How did this extraordinary rescue effort come about? Who were the refugees who made the journey? And how did they adapt from life in Europe’s cities to farming in the Caribbean with the support of their Dominican neighbors?
Drawing on years of archival research, acclaimed historian Marion Kaplan explores this unique chapter of Holocaust history and the life-saving connections between Jewish refugees and the Dominican Republic.
About the Speaker
Marion Kaplan is Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History Emerita at New York University and one of the world’s leading historians of German Jewry and the Holocaust. She is the award-winning author of numerous books, including Dominican Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosúa, 1940–1945 and Hitler’s Jewish Refugees: Hope and Anxiety in Portugal. Her scholarship has transformed our understanding of Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust.
Free and open to the public.