Wednesday, August 30, 2006

NEW YORK, USA: Commemorating 1,000 Jews rescued from Nazi Germany by the Dominican Republic, the Dominican Republic Ambassador will open an exhibit in New York on Sunday, September 10, 2006, to honour the Dominican Republic community for its heroic role during the Holocaust.

The Harriet & Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center & Archives in New York, in conjunction with Rabbi Isidoro Aizenberg, a noted scholar of Jewish communities in the Caribbean, has produced an historical exhibit, Sosua, Haven from the Holocaust in the Tropics.

This powerful exhibit presents a compelling insight into the process that helped save the lives of almost 1,000 German-Jewish refugees.

In September of 1939, amid mounting repression of the Jews in Nazi Germany, Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo offered to accept as many as 100,000 Jews for resettlement in the Dominican Republic. His offer came after neither the European Allies nor the United States came forward to help the Jews. More than 1,000 Jews eventually settled in Sosua, forming a cooperative that specialized in dairy farming and meat production. In addition to farming, they pursued cultural activities, with several premier Jewish musicians among the Sosua Jewish community.

“At a time when the Jews of Germany sought refuge from the growing Nazi terror that was enveloping them,” explained Dr. Arthur Flug, Executive Director of The Kupferberg Center, “it was the Dominican Republic that welcomed them. Other nations, including the United States, found convenient excuses not to provide refuge.”

The story of Sosua remains a beacon of hope and compassion amid the devastation and genocide the Jews faced during the World War II. The exhibit brings the story to life, and provides an insight into man’s compassion as well as man’s cruelty. The exhibit is free to the general public, and is scheduled to run from September 10 through December 31, 2006.

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