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The Holocaust: A German Jew’s Plea for Help from the British

(September 27, 1939-May 19, 1941)

In a series of correspondence between September 27, 1939, and May 19, 1941, Dr. Hans von Simon, a German Jew, is in regular contact with Sir William Goode in Britain. Having escaped to Switzerland, the earlier letters relate primarily to Simon’s request for help getting a visa to take his family from Geneva to Portugal. At that time the British Foreign Office was tightening restrictions on refugees from Germany and Austria and advising other countries, especially, Portugal, to do the same.

Simon was able to obtain a Czech passport, since he was born in Prague, and managed to get to Portugal where he applied for a visa to Britain. He received support for his application from Goode, in part, because he had been involved in helping with British propaganda.

On January 26, 1941, Simon wrote a letter to Goode telling him about rumors he was hearing about the Nazis killing old people, inhabitants of lunatic asylums and disabled soldiers who might provoke opposition to the regime.

Interestingly, Simon only mentions his religion once (see his letter of December 5, 1939–Document 20). He refers to the possibility of being sent to a concentration camp (which he apparently was aware of long before most people were) not only because he is a Jew but because he supported Austrian independence and was seen by the Germans as infected by Western ideas. He laments that as a German he cannot get a job in the West, and that the Nazis confiscated much of his property and England sequestered some of his possessions because he is viewed as an alien enemy.

Ultimately, Britain approved a visa, but too late. Simon had received one first from the United States and decided to go there instead. Simon reached the United States in February 1941, but continued to write to his friend Goode and to offer his help and analysis of the political situation in the United States and German and British propaganda.


Source: British Archives CAB 63/140