Figure 1.--Sosúa is a coastal town in Dominican Republic, the site of an abandoned banana plabtation. Jewish refuggess fleeing from Nazi Germany founded an agrucultural commune there (1940). Some 700 Jews were settlked there. Here are some of the children who survived the Holocaust at Sosúa.

The Dominican Republic had a vry sdmall Jewish population. The Inquisition during the Spanush colonial era worked very hard to keep Jews out of the colonies. As NAZI persecution of the Jews became increasingly severe, Preident Rafael Trujillo offered to accept 0.1 million Jewish refugees at the Envian Conference (1938). Trujillo while admiring Spanish Generalismo Francico Franco and Axis leaders Hitler and Mussolini, also admitted Spanish Republican refugees from the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). This relatively open immigration policy was part of the Dominican anti-Haitaian policies. Trujillo pursued a policy of Baquismo, whitening the population through European immigration. Dominican diplomats issued about 5,000 visas, but only 645 Jews actually reached the country. Another source says about 700 made it to the Domimican Republic. [Margolis] The basic problem as that by 1938 as Hitler moved toward war, NAZI policy was changing. The NAZIs shifted from encouraging Jewish emigration to a new more sinsiter policy and it became increasingly difficult to emigrate. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Dominican Republic declared war on Japan and Germany, entering World War II (December 1941). This meant that Dominican embassies and consuls were closed, except in Vichy France (until November 1942) and Portugal and Spain. The Dominican government accepted the Jews on the condition that they become agricultural workers rather than 'commission agents' so they would not compete with Dominicans for jobs. The JCS created a special organization, the Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA) and funded it to purchase 26,000 acres in the Dominican town of Sosua The United Fruit Company had created a banbana polabtation there, but had abandoined it. The Jewish refugees that made it to the country were settled at Sosua. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee provided the funding. At first they attemopted community farming, but then shidted to individual plots. The settlers received 80 acres of land, 10 cows, a mule and a horse. They were mostly German and Austrian Jews with professional or artisan skills. DORSA obtained experts from kibbutzim in Palestine to teach communal agriculture. They helped design and build a communal meat processing plant aswell as a butter and cheese factory. One recomendation was raising lemongrass for its oil, which is commercially used in perfume.One Sousa refugee, a boy at the time reports, describes the experience. "My father, when he had a farm, he raised cows and he raised pigs, as well, and he won a lot of prizes in the country fairs. I always say as a joke, they were very kosher pigs. It was very, very, very pioneer. I mean, you see the old Westerns, the movies — it's very similar. The first few years, we didn't even have electricity; that came later. We had, like, these kerosene lamps. And we had a big vessel to have cool water." A tough life. He he had black and brown friends, and nobody cared that he was a Jew. [Margolis] They quickly and successfully adapted to farming. They estanlished the Jewish cooperative—Productos Sosua. Today the copperative makes an important contribution to the Dominican Republic's meat and dairy production. Eventually after the War, most of the refugees emigrated to America.

Sources

Margolis, Jason, "The Dominican Republic took in Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler while 31 nations looked away," The World (November 9, 2018).

Ross, Nicholas.

Created: 6:15 PM 3/19/2021
Last updated: 6:15 PM 3/19/2021