Solidarity and the Academic Community: The Support Networks for Refugee Scholars in the 1930s

Abstract

Solidarity and the Academic Community: Refugee Scholars and their Support Networks in the 1930s

Recent scholarship on humanitarianism has drawn attention to the intertwined nature of humanitarianism and politics and questioned narratives that present charity and humanitarianism as purportedly universal values. Additionally, research on refugees has pointed to the role of refugee issues in disputes over the meaning of citizenship, national belonging and exclusion. Yet these discussions have not been applied to the history of the scholars who were forced into exile by the National Socialists from 1933 onwards. The article focuses on two organisations for academic refugees, the British Academic Assistance Council and the Notgemeinschaft deutscher Wissenschaftler im Ausland, which facilitated emigration and placed scientists at host institutions abroad. It argues that the aid efforts of these organisations were to a considerable extent shaped by professional considerations and remained dependent on well-established national infrastructures and concerns.