During the 1930s it was still possible for Germany's Jews to emigrate. Yet sadly, there were few places to go. Most countries were unwilling to admit Jews, fearing they would become social and economic burdens.

By 1938 the number of Jews seeking refuge abroad increased tremendously. The Anschluss, Germany's annexation of Austria, was accompanied by the humiliation, torture, arrests, and expropriation of Austrian Jews. Thousands attempted to flee for the borders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Switzerland, filling trains and congesting roads with cars and taxis.

The Anschluss also marked the beginning of the Nazi policy of expulsion by force. Some Jews were beaten, stripped of their belongings, put onto dilapidated boats, and pushed down the Danube River frontier. In October 1938, 17,000 Polish-born Jews living in Germany were rounded up, loaded aboard sealed railroad cars, and illegally driven across the Polish border by SS guards. Finding shelter in a small frontier village, thousands crowded into pigsties, stables, and warehouses. Although the Poles initially attempted to force them back, most of the refugees were reluctantly admitted.

Kristallnacht ignited further panicked emigration to Palestine, Britain, the Americas, and war-torn Shanghai, China. Some hastily fled eastward via the Soviet Trans-Siberian Railroad. Others frantically accepted passage aboard rickety, unseaworthy ships.
Photo: National Archives/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive