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How Many Refugees Came to the United States from 1933-1945?
How did US immigration law affect people hoping to escape Nazi Germany and enter the United States? Learn how many people were able to leave Europe, how many people remained on the waiting list, and how immigration to the United States changed over time.
1900 - 1915
Before World War I, millions of Europeans immigrated to the United States. The US government placed no overall limits on the number of immigrants who could enter the country.
1915 - 1924
World War I (1914-1918) made emigration from Europe to the United States difficult, and immigration levels fell.
1924
In 1924, Congress passed a law to set immigration quotas by country and limit total immigration to about 164,000 people per year. The quotas were designed to "protect" America's "racial stock" by severely limiting "undesirable" immigrants, including Jews, Asians, and Africans. There were no quotas for immigrants from North or South America.
1925 - 1932
Immigration fell significantly after the 1924 law went into effect. In 1929, the Great Depression began. President Herbert Hoover ordered the State Department to make sure immigrants would not become economic burdens to the United States. Immigration plummeted even further.
1933
Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. The Nazi regime immediately started discriminating against German Jews, and thousands sought to leave.
The 1924 US quota law set a limit of 25,957 immigration visas for people born in Germany. In 1933, the State Department issued visas to only 1,241 Germans. Although 82,787 people were on the German waiting list for a US visa, most did not have enough money to qualify for immigration.
1934 - 1937
Between 1934 and 1937, there were between 80,000 and 100,000 Germans on the waiting list for a US immigration visa. Most were Jewish. Although, the State Department slowly began to issue more visas, the German quota went unfilled.
1938
After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt combined the German and Austrian quotas, making 27,370 visas available each year for people born in these countries, who were now all considered "German." As antisemitic persecution increased and Germany began to expand its territorial holdings in Europe, the waiting list grew.
1939
In 1939, the State Department issued the maximum number of visas available to Germans for the first time. Yet nearly ten times that number remained on the waiting list.
1940
After World War II began in September 1939, it became more difficult for people to emigrate from Europe. More than 300,000 people, most of them Jewish, were on the waiting list. The State Department almost filled the German quota in 1940.
1941
With Europe at war, the State Department implemented new restrictions designed both to protect the nation's security and further limit immigration. In July 1941, Nazi Germany ordered US consulates in Nazi-occupied territory to close, trapping potential immigrants. Only German refugees who had already escaped Nazi territory could obtain US immigration visas.
Immigration became almost impossible, and the State Department canceled the waiting list. The United States entered World War II in December 1941.
1933 - 1945
Many more people could have reached the United States had the State Department filled the German quota beginning in 1933, or had Congress changed immigration laws to address the refugee crisis. Approximately 125,000 Germans, most of them Jewish, immigrated to the United States between 1933 and 1945.
Long Odds
Though estimates vary, somewhere between 180,000 and 220,000 European refugees immigrated to the United States between 1933 and 1945. The United States accepted more refugees fleeing Nazi persecution than any other country in the world. Most of these refugees were Jewish and from central and western Europe.
During World War II, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Eastern Europe, including Poland and the Soviet Union, which was home to millions of Jews. The US quotas for these countries were very small, and Eastern European Jews had almost no hope of immigrating. The vast majority were murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. |