Content deleted Content added
removed excess wp link from previous edit |
m spelling |
||
Line 75:
By the time World War II broke out in September 1939, HICEM had offices throughout Europe, South and Central America, and the Far East. Its employees advised and prepared European refugees for emigration, including helping them during their departure and arrival.{{citation needed|date=December 2013}}
HICEM's European headquarters were in Paris.<ref name="findingaids">{{cite web |title=Guide to the Records of the HIAS-HICEM Offices in Europe 1924–1953 |work=[[YIVO]] Institute for Jewish Research |url=http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1309366 |accessdate=December 17, 2013}}</ref> After Germany invaded and conquered France in mid-1940, HICEM closed its Paris offices. On June 26, 1940, two days after France capitulation the main HIAS-HICEM Paris Office was authorized by Portuguese ruler [[António de Oliveira Salazar]] to be transferred from Paris to Lisbon. According to the Lisbon Jewish community, Salazar held [[Moisés Bensabat Amzalak]], the leader of the [[Lisbon Jewish community]] in high esteem and that allowed
The French office reopened in October 1940, first in Bordeaux, for a week, and finally in Marseilles in the so-called "free zone" [[Vichy France]].{{r|findingaids}} Until November 11, 1942, when the Germans [[Case Anton|occupied]] all of France, HICEM employees were at work in [[Internment camp|French internment camps]], such as the infamous [[Gurs internment camp|Gurs]]. HIAS looked for Jews who met [[US State Department|U.S. State Department]] immigration requirements, and were ready to leave France. At the time of the German invasion of France, there were approximately 300,000 native and foreign Jews living in France; however, the State Department's policies curbing immigration meant that the number of applicants to America far exceeded the number allowed to leave.{{citation needed|date=December 2013}}
| |||