Europe's bottleneck: the Iberian Peninsula and the Jewish refugee crisis, 1933-1944

This thesis offers a transnational history of the Jewish refugee crisis in South-Western Europe, and assesses the role of the Iberian Peninsula in the Holocaust. It does so by looking at Vichy France, Franco’s Spain, and Salazar’s Portugal. It explores the possibilities of rescue, and the offer of relief. It accounts for the persecution of Jews in Spain and Portugal. And it examines the role of the Western Allies in offering relief and promoting the rescue of Jews in the region. Crucially, this thesis also focuses in the role of humanitarian organisations, both private and intergovernmental, in tackling the Jewish refugee situation. The role of Jewish underground groups in organising the clandestine crossing of the Pyrenees is also explored in detail. Lastly, this thesis also accounts for the decimated possibilities of transportation from the Iberian Peninsula during the war, and for the repercussions of this transportation crisis for the Jewish refugee crisis and the Holocaust