[4.16. Jewish
haven in Belgium 1933-1938]
[Emigration wave - since
1938 border crossing is made difficult]
A similar situation developed in Belgium. Two committees
functioned there: one in Brussels under Dr. Max
Gottschalk, and a second, less effective one, in Antwerp.
JDC allocations to Belgium also grew, approximating the
expenditure in Holland
(End note 83: Expenditures in 1934 came to $ 16,589; these
had risen to $ 94,000 in 1938, and jumped to $ 649,000 in
1939 (34-Germany, refugees in Holland, 1941/2).
and about the same number of refugees arrived there. By
1940 30,000 refugees were estimated to have entered the
country since 1933. Of these, about one-half arrived
before 1938 and the rest after March 1938.
(End note 84: R9, JDC report: "Aid to Jews Overseas", 1939
and the first six months of 1940; and: 31-Refugees,
1939-1942)
The Belgian government, which had been very liberal during
the early 1930s, became more and more restrictive toward
the end of the decade. Gottschalk's committee was in
serious trouble by the autumn of 1938.
[Training farm Wieringen
for young German Jews for emigration to Palestine]
Probably the most impressive piece of work done by the
refugee committees in the Benelux countries was a
retraining farm at Wieringen in Holland, establishes on
March 13, 1934, by Mrs. van Tijn's group. On the lands of
a typical Dutch polder-land reclaimed from the sea - an
attempt was made to prepare young German Jews to emigrate
and become farmers in various countries. After social
difficulties encountered during the first couple of years
of Wieringen's existence, owing to the presence there of
Communist youth, the farm became a great success. The
Communists disappeared from the farm during the Spanish
Civil War, and the majority of the young people who
remained and those who joined later from Germany leaned
toward Palestine.
Wieringen was in fact run by a Palestinian couple, Moshe
and Lea Katznelson. By April 1936, out of 60 youngsters,
33 had gone to Palestine. In late 1938, after the November
pogroms in Germany, a noted German Jewish educator, Dr.
Kurt Bondy, brought over 20 pupils from the training farm
at Gross-Breesen in Germany. Up to 1939, it appears, 245
pupils had left Wieringen, of whom 111 went to Palestine.
(End note 85: Gertrude van Tijn: Werkdorf Nieuwesluis; In:
Leo Baeck Yearbook; London 1969, 14:182-99)
