The election of Adolf Hitler to the post of Chancellor of the Reich on January 30th 1933 did not immediately lead to the exile of German Jews. However the Reichstag fire of February 27th and the arrest of over 4000 opponents of the regime set off the flight abroad of a first wave of refugees, amongst whom figured many Jews. According to the historian Anne Grynberg “there were many Jews, but often they had little sense of collective identity; if they were leaving Germany, it was primarily because they felt threatened as opponents of Hitler. Between March and August 1933, the prefecture of the Paris police registered 7,304 refugees from Germany, and 2,500 clandestine refugees should be added to this figure.” Paris was not of course the only destination and during the same period Sanary in the Var department became the world capital of German literature. 25,000 to 30,000 Germans took refuge in France at the end of 1933. The second wave of immigration dates from the introduction of anti-Semitic measures in Germany; firstly the boycott of Jewish shops and then the application of the Nuremberg laws in 1935. A Committee for the aid of victims of German anti-Semitism was created in France. Many spoke up in defense of the victims but this did not prevent the introduction of a restrictive legislation for the entire group of refugees in 1934: obligatory visa, identity card subject to certain conditions, etc… 1935 saw the arrival of refugees from the Saarland, after the plebiscite reincorporating the Saar into the Reich. Notably amongst these refugees were Germans who had taken refugees in the Saarland in 1933 and had to move again in 1935. On September 17th 1936 Leon Blum signed the convention of recognition of the status of German refugees. The Popular Front had no impact on the arrangements.
France is for the French
The communists took up the slogan of Action Française “France is for the French”. (“la France aux Français). The climate of tension provoked by the economic and international situation meant the arrival of the Jewish refugees was particularly unpopular. After March 11th 1938, the refugees from Austria arrived following the Anschluss, then after November and Crystal Night a wave from the entire Reich reached French borders. It transpired from the arrest and interrogation of clandestine refugees that the Reich authorities had explained to refugees how to cross the border, some declaring that they had been accompanied onto the territory by Nazi police officers. At the same time the racial laws of fascist Italy persuaded Czech, German and Austrians to come to France via the Alpes Maritimes border territory. The Daladier decree of May 2nd 1938 preserved the right to asylum, but also stipulated that foreigners entering clandestinely could be sentenced to one month to a year’s imprisonment. Rudolf and Hans Taussig were sentenced in this way by the court at Nice. At the start of 1939, and even after Munich, it was the turn of the Czechs – and as with the case that we already pointed out of the Saarland, amongst them were Germans who had taken refuge in Prague after 1933 and who, considering themselves to no longer be in a place of safety, opted for a new departure. According to Patrick Weil in total 120,000 Germans and Austrians were admitted to France between 1933 and 1940, of whom 90% were Jews. The official evaluations vary; in 1939 between 45,000 and 70,000 German and Austrian refugees were present in French territory;
Unwanted
In order to fully apprehend the extent of the repressive measures that were enacted, it’s necessary to keep in mind the chronology of events proceeded from England and France’s declaration of war against Germany. The conflict which broke out on September 3rd 1939 led the Daladier government to reinforce surveillance of political milieu considered to be subversive and to extend the internment procedure to all individuals, foreign or not, suspected as a threat to national defense or public safety. The order in Council of 1938 relating to the “situation and policing of foreigners” had already decreed on the case of “undesirable foreigners”, “the elimination of whom is essential (…) on the grounds of their actions that are a danger to national security”. With a view to their internment, “special gathering centers” were created.
Leon Oesterreicher
The story of Leon Oesterreicher, born on January 1st 1910 in Lackenbach in Austrian Burgenland, illustrates the situation of numerous refugees. Son of Ignace and Lina née Moses, Leon Oesterreicher was a cobbler, and he left his home to hide in Vienna in April 1938 after the Anschluss. Leon left the territory of the Reich for Switzerland and entered France on July 18th 1938 at the border at Basel. He lived in Lagny in the Seine et Marne district, at Blagy le Château in the Calvados region, in the Orne where his passport was confiscated and then arrived in Lyon on October 10th 1938. His traces reappear in Bron on February 1st 1939 at the foyer of rue de la Solidarité. He then moved in to the Hôtel Thomassin, at 80 bis, rue Mercière, where he was still living in April 1939. He was at the head of the Jewish refugee committee of Lyon and holder of a warrant valid until May 3rd. He said he wanted to work in agriculture like many refugees in order to gain authorisation to remain in the territory. Léon Oesterreicher did not speak or understand French, he was 1.84m tall, had chestnut hair and blue eyes, and his police file also stipulates that he had the distinguishing feature of a 5cm scar on his left cheek. In July 1939 the Minister for the Interior decided to send him to the detention centre at Martigny in the Vosges region. To avoid internment in a camp he enlisted in the army at the recruitment office of Neufchâteau, also in the Vosges region on the 17th November and was called up to the 2nd foreigners regiment of Meknes. Leon’s older sister Hedwige managed to emigrate to Great Britain where she worked as a servant.
1940-1945
Demobilised on September 22nd 1940 after working on the construction of the Trans-Saharan, Leon Oesterreicher asked to return to France on health grounds. He was transferred to G.T.E 321( Group of foreign workers) in Chanac in the Lozère region where he remained until January 1942. As a former legionary he was freed from this group of workers on October 12th and signed a working contract for six months at the mines of Orignac, where he stayed for only four months. He went to Tarbes where he worked in a tannery until June 1943. He was arrested for attempting to cross the border clandestinely and initially taken to the Noé camp. He was then sent to G.T.E 662 in Muret, and then to the 562 in Toulouse in August 1943. Trialed in October 1943, while he was allocated to GTE 525 in Bagnères in Bigorre he was condemned and sat his sentence in the prison of Tarbes. He returned to GTE after prison and was freed on September 13th 1944. He returned to Lyon in March 1945 where he met Françoise Balstein, a French woman of Polish origin whose family was arrested and then deported. They married and had two children. Hedwige, Léon’s sister, visited the young couple.
Leon , Françoise and Hedwige after the war in Lyon, Oesterreicher family collection
Hospitalized in 1951, Leon died of the consequences of six years of internment on October 12th 1951, he was forty one years old.
