THE JEWISH REFUGEE CHILDREN FROM EUROPE IN THE EYES OF THE AMERICAN PRESS AND PUBLIC-OPINION 1934-1945

Between 1934-1945 approximately 1000 unaccompanied Jewish children, refugees from Nazism, reached the United States. These were but a fraction of the total number of Jewish refugees who reached the USA during this period. Yet the Issue of child refugees differed from that of adults in several ways and therefore received separate mention in the American press.This article charts and analyzes the press coverage of the refugee child issue dunng six chronological penods 1934-1938 and the arrival and acclimatization of the first child refugees from Germany, late 1938 - Kristallnacht and the aroused consciousness of the plight of persecuted children in Germany, 1939 - the Wagner-Rogers Bill to permit the extra quota entry of 20, 000 children from Germany into the United States; 1940 - the evacuation of British children to the United States and the furor over the use of American 'Mercy Ships'; 1941 -1944 - the arrival of Central European refugee children who had found temporary refuge in France, Spain anc Portugal; 1945 - the repatriation of evacuees and the Reunion of refugee children with their surviving parents © 1990 Pergamon Press plc.