Home

The story of the Jewish colony in Sosua on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic remains one of the bright spots in the tragic history of the European Jews during the Holocaust. At the 1938 Evian Conference, held in France, world leaders from more than 30 nations gathered to discuss the problem of what to do about the hundreds of thousands of Jews left homeless by the Anschluss (the unification of Austria and the German Reich). Surprisingly, the only country willing to accept those refugees was the Dominican Republic ruled by dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina.

Of course Trujillo had his reasons to make this generous offer. He had fallen out of favor with President Franklin Roosevelt and other leaders as a result of the brutal massacre in 1937 of about 15,000 unarmed Haitians. Trujillo hoped that accepting Jewish refugees would not only help restore his relationship with Washington but also “whiten” the Dominican race by promoting the miscegenation of the white Jewish emigrants with the “darker” Dominicans.

In time about 750 German Jews from Germany and Austria settled in Sosua. The Jewish charities which selected and paid for the transport and settlement of these refugees quickly learned how difficult it was to obtain transit visas, boats to bring the settlers from Europe, and that the costs of setting up the farming colony in Sosúa were high. The newly arrived refugees were glad to have escaped the Nazis, but many had a very difficult time adjusting to the hot climate, a life of farming, the lack of cultural activities, and to the uncertainty of what was happening with their families and loved ones who remained in Europe. In time, successful dairy and meat cooperatives were established along with a school and synagogue, and the colony took root.

However, many of the settlers hoped that with the end of World War II they could move to the United States or Palestine; and with the exception of a few of the male settlers who married Dominican women, most of the Jewish immigrants did not mix socially with their neighbors. Nonetheless, the Jews of Sosúa were tremendously grateful to Trujillo -- unquestionably a brutal dictator -- who remained their benefactor and who enabled them to survive the Nazis.

Today, Sosua is a popular seaside resort attracting tourists from around the world. As commercial as it has become, there remain a few “signs” of the pre-existing Jewish colony: a small museum, the synagogue, some street signs with characteristically Jewish names, a Jewish cemetery, and several very elderly Jewish residents who long ago willingly came to the Dominican Republic to farm and to save their own lives.

Marion Kaplan’s “Dominican Haven” (255 pages including end notes, a bibliography, and numerous photos) was researched and written to accompany an exhibition about Sosúa, which opened in 2008 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage -- A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, New York City. Kaplan, an award-winning author and Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History at New York University, has written a social and political history of Sosúa, which begins with the Evian conference and concludes with the postwar exodus.

One of the most interesting chapters, “Problems in Paradise,” includes a frank analysis of the problems created by the imbalance between the sexes (about four male settlers to each female) and the ongoing disagreements between the settlers and the local DORSA (the Dominican Republic Settlement Association) administration.

In “Tropical Zion” (447 pages including end notes, a bibliography, an index, and photos), Allen Wells discusses in depth the history of Jewish colonization efforts that preceded Sosúa; the key roles played by Dr. Joseph Rosen (a Russian born agronomist) and Mr. James Rosenberg (a New York attorney who specialized in corporate bankruptcy) in establishing and maintaining Sosua, and expertly details how “securely these stateless exiles were tethered, without their knowledge or consent, to larger geopolitical concerns at a moment of world crisis.”

The complex diplomatic relations between the Dominican Republic and the United States as well as fears that some of the Jewish settlers were actually members of a fifth column and working as spies for the Nazis resulted in a “scaled back” Sosúa of less than 1,000 settlers (instead of the 100,000 invited by Trujillo).

Wells is the Roger Howell Jr. Professor of History in the Department of History at Bowdoin College. He is also the son of Henrich Wasservogel who escaped from Austria as a young man and lived in Sosúa from 1940-1947 before finally settling in New York City where he changed his name to Henry Wells.

The Jewish farming colony of Sosúa is often depicted as a tropical paradise at a time when millions of Jews were dying in ghettos and concentration camps. Its story, however, is much more complex. “Dominican Haven” and “Tropical Zion” are beautifully written and based on extensive research and personal interviews. While Kaplan presents a more straightforward picture, Wells, having grown up hearing his father’s stories about life in Sosúa, emphasizes the extraordinarily complex political realities affecting the colony.

Together, these two books add greatly to our understanding of “the challenges, opportunities, and barriers” to the settlement of Jewish refugees in the Dominican Republic.

Judith W. Rosenthal is a professor of biological sciences at Kean University. She lives in Edison.