“When I Came Home — I did Not Come Home.” The Antinomies of the Experience of German and Austrian Exiles 1933–1945 and Beyond

Abstract

The National Socialist regime drove many Germans and Austrians into exile. Almost half a million Jews, communists, social democrats, and other opponents of Nazism emigrated from their homeland since 1933 leaving their material belongings, their work, their country behind. For most the experience of exile was a traumatic and painful one since many of the refugees were in their fifties, sixties or even older, i.e. they were at an age not suited to a sudden uprooting and the lifestyle of a displaced person. Not only did they have to cope with their own plight but they became helpless witnesses as the new rulers of Germany and their followers brought shame and disgrace upon a land in which the exiles had spent their lives and in which they were deeply rooted. Their love for their fatherland often turned into bitterness and hatred because Germany was now a country which unleashed a war and in which many of their fellow citizens were brutally murdered for racial or political reasons.