American Universities and the Refugee Scholars of the Nazi Era

Despite the triumphalist tale that during the Nazi era the United States rescued Europe's intellectual elite, including Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, Hannah Arendt and Herbert Marcuse, thousands of European scholars sought to immigrate to the United States and couldn't. American universities refused to hire them and the State Department erected barriers to letting them in, meaning many lost not only their livelihoods, but also their lives. Dr. Laurel Leff, author of Well Worth Saving: American Universities' Life and Death Decisions on Refugees from Nazi Europe (Yale University Press, 2019), will introduce a few of those scholars and explain how academic institutions in the United States undertook these fraught choices.

**To attend in person: The event is free and open to all, but registration ahead of time is required and visitors must show ID upon entering the campus at Queensborough Community College (QCC). For directions to QCC’s campus, please visit https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/about/index.html#gettingHere. For elevator access, enter the QCC Administration building and follow signs for the Kupferberg Holocaust Center.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher The Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center