Philippine E-Journals

Jewish Refugee Rescue in the Philippines, 1937-1941

Bonnie M. Harris

 

Abstract:

This paper highlights a few aspects of the remarkable story of how one small Asian country managed to do what so many more capable nations of the world were reluctant to do – save Jewish lives. It is remarkable because they managed to circumvent the inclination of U.S. State Department officials’ propensity to obstruct Jewish rescue and they more than quadrupled the population of the Philippine Jewish community in the process. By offering a haven for 1,301 refugees, the Philippine rescuers saved them from the fate of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.