Escaping on Iberian ships arriving in Caribbean camps Second World War refugees in global transit

During the Second World War, Jewish refugees fled the Low Countries and found their way to Iberian harbors and ships, and eventually reached the Caribbean. Much to their surprise, they were interned in camps in Curaçao, Jamaica, and Suriname. Their confinement lasted from days to years, after which they pursued varied paths—some relocating within the Caribbean, others moving to the United States, or even returning to Europe to fight the Axis Powers. This dissertation investigates not only their routes and camp experiences but also these histories’ lasting effects and why they remain largely absent from public memory.
The dissertation is structured along two approaches. The first two chapters adopt a “locality” lens: The Ship analyzes the refugees’ liminal transatlantic journeys, drawing on scarce shipboard sources and analyzing colonial authorities’ attitudes toward and expectations of Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants. The Camp compares internment sites, showing how architecture, restrictions, and racialized contexts shaped the lives and experiences of refugees. The third chapter examines the exit routes from internment—through military service, employment, or personal connections—and traces the subsequent wartime lives of refugees across the Caribbean. The fourth chapter extends to postwar trajectories and memory, exploring how flight experiences were woven into family histories and remembered (or forgotten) across continents.
Finally, the dissertation demonstrates the value of juxtaposing sites of arrival and stresses the importance of source-finding. Drawing from archives, private collections, synagogue archives, and (recorded) interviews, it reconstructs overlooked histories of global wartime transit and displacement.