Trudi Alexy

There are a couple of books here, fighting for supremacy!

The first book is about how and why Spain opened its borders to Jewish refugees from the Holocaust.

"The irrefutable fact remains that, although the presence of Jews placed the whole country at risk of being drawn into another ar or occupied by Hitler's forces, Fascist Spain, both officially and unofficially, accepted thousands of foreign Ashkenazic Jews within its borders and allowed them to remain until they were able to secure show more residence elsewhere."

Why? The question is probably unanswerable, though Alexy tries her best. Guilt over the expulsions of 1492? Maybe, but this does not account for the welcome to Ashkenazic, as well as Sephardic, Jews. Maybe Franco had Jewish ancestors? There's no proof of that. A political decision in case the Allies won? Perhaps, but in a country devastated economically by the Civil War, Spain gave much. One interesting suggestion is that because of the expulsion, and the concomitant absence of a Jewish population, Spain did not develop the kind of anti-Semitic attitudes seen in other European countries.

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that thousands owe their lives to an official blind eye, and open Spanish arms.

Alexy begins by explaining her quest, her need to understand her own family history that sent her to Spain, and to the New York archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ("the Joint"), the organization that was responsible for helping stateless Jewish refugees in Spain. She interviews several people who found, or whose parents found, a haven across the Pyrenees, and in the section called "The Rescuers" she writes of those, Jews and non-Jews, who provided the means to safety. People such as Lisa Fittko, who acted as a guide, and Renée Reichmann, who from Tangier arranged material support, and Spanish diplomats who told the Gestapo, "these are our Jews" and taught the children a few words of Spanish in case they should be challenged.

The next two parts seemed to me as though they should be in a different book. "The Reformers" writes of present-day liberalization of Spanish laws and attitudes about non-Catholics (not merely Jews). It's interesting but although it touches on some theories as to why Spain helped, it is really more focused on the present and seems out of place.

The same is true of the final section, about contemporary Marranos and other "secret Jews". This is a huge topic about which a whole book could, and should (and probably has, I'll have to look) be written. In fact, the subtitle of this book suggests that that's what it's about. But it isn't.

Either this book should have been much longer, and made into a history of Spain and the Jews (and that would be a seriously long book!), or it should have been shorter, and the last two parts saved to become another book or books.

But those are quibbles. This is a fascinating, and very personal, discussion of an unexpected and little-known part of the Holocaust. show less

This book was emotionally exhausting even before I was halfway through the book. Yet the journeys are incredible, first of a Czec girl who does not even see herself as Jewish until many years later, and then recounting the journeys and lives of many other Jews of Spanish origin, modern or medieval, and their often tense relationship with Spain. I'd not realized that Franco had ever, even if only during the last few years of the war, allowed or helped any Spanish Jews to come into Spain to show more escape the Nazis (yemach shemo). Even if it was only in the hope of using their international business connections to help the Spanish economy. :-( show less

This book was emotionally exhausting even before I was halfway through the book. Yet the journeys are incredible, first of a Czec girl who does not even see herself as Jewish until many years later, and then recounting the journeys and lives of many other Jews of Spanish origin, modern or medieval, and their often tense relationship with Spain. I'd not realized that Franco had ever, even if only during the last few years of the war, allowed or helped any Spanish Jews to come into Spain to show more escape the Nazis (yemach shemo). Even if it was only in the hope of using their international business connections to help the Spanish economy. :-( show less

Fascinating history of the "Secret Jews"--those who converted to avoid expulsion from Spain in the 15th century, and whose descendants even today are often reluctant to acknowledge or embrace their past for fear of persecution and prejudice.