The League of Nations and the Refugees from Nazi Germany

Greg Burgess''s important new study explores the short life of the High Commission for Refugees (Jewish and Other) Coming from Germany from its creation by the League of Nations in October 1933 to the resignation of High Commissioner James G. McDonald in December 1935.The book relates the history of the first stage of refugees from Germany through the prism of McDonald and the High Commission. It analyses the factors that shaped the Commission''s formation the undertakings the Commission embarked upon and its eventual failure owing to external complications.The League of Nations and the Refugees from Nazi Germany argues that in spite of the Commission''s failure the refugees from Nazi Germany and the High Commission''s work mark a turn in conceptions of international humanitarian responsibilities when a state defies standards of proper behaviour towards its citizens. From this point on it was no longer considered sufficient or acceptable for states to respect the sovereign rights of another if the rights of citizens were being violated. Greg Burgess discusses this idea amongst others in detail as part of what is a crucial volume for all scholars and students of Nazi Germany the Holocaust and modern Jewish history.