The Organisation of Relief for Political Refugees

Abstract

As the greatest potential threat to Nazi hegemony in Germany, it was the left-wing parties which became the initial targets for legislation and persecution under Hitler’s chancellorship. In the space of six months, all the organisations of the Left were denied a legal or practical existence in the new Germany and prevented from taking any further active part in open politics. Opposition to the new regime could only be conducted illegally from inside the country or from a refuge elsewhere in Europe. By trying to reorganise their parties abroad, the leaders of the German Left emphasised their belief that the national socialists were only a temporary evil and that their own exile would be short-lived. In 1933, only a small minority of the political refugees felt that they were leaving Germany for good.