The Saved and the Spurned

Details Jewish refugees’ desperate attempts to escape to Northern Ireland before World War II and their lasting impact.

For several months before World War II, hundreds of persecuted Jews, mainly from Nazi-occupied Vienna, tried to escape to Northern Ireland. They had learned of a Stormont job-creation scheme to tackle the region’s chronic unemployment by offering financial support to skilled professionals.

Almost all applicants were rejected, and more than 125 of these men, women and children were murdered in the Holocaust.

Based on extensive archival research, unpublished family memoirs and letters, and interviews with survivors and their descendants, this extraordinary book describes the applicants’ desperate efforts to save their families and themselves, and highlights the tireless work done by committed Northern Irish people to rescue them. It also explores how the small numbers of refugees admitted made a major contribution to Northern Ireland’s economic, social and cultural life that continues to this day.