Before a “Broken” Immigration System: What Happens When There Is No System?

FROM THE ARCHIVE
Before a “Broken” Immigration System: What Happens When There Is No System?
Mary Brown, Ph.D.

In a September 11 statement this year, the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) called for the federal government, New York State, and New York City to work together to address the issue of the recent influx of migrants into New York City. The statement assumes that the city, state, and federal government have budgets, agencies charged with providing services, and the physical infrastructure to house the migrants. There was a time, however, when none of this was available, with the result being a very hit-and-miss approach to the care of immigrant arrivals.

The story starts in 1935 with the Nazis’ promulgation of the Nuremberg Laws, which created a definition of an “Aryan,” or pure, German race, granting members of that race German citizenship, and depriving all others in Germany of citizenship regardless of birth, generations of family in Germany, or military service. Overnight, non-Aryans lost jobs and pensions. Because they lost citizenship rights, their private-sector jobs and property rights were at risk. Marriage to non-Aryans was illegal, putting their families in danger. As the German military spread over Europe, so did the Nuremberg Laws, creating a continent of people desperate for refuge.

It is common knowledge that the United States was slow to respond to this refugee crisis because of many factors. One was the lack of modern agencies for caring for refugees. The government relied on the private sector, and the private sector relied on agencies organized by faith. The Jewish faith was perhaps the best organized, having dealt with refugees since the tsarist pogroms of the 1880s, but the Catholics lagged.

In response to a request from the German Catholic bishops, supported by Pope Pius XI, the American Catholic bishops established what they thought was going to be an ad hoc Committee for Catholic Refugees from Germany. They chose the name partly to make it clear that there were other agencies for refugees of other faiths. Almost immediately, they ran into a problem, as Germany annexed Austria, and created another country of refugees. In February 1940, the German bishops adopted the broader name: the Catholic Committee for Refugees. After the 1939 Evian Conference on European Refugees, Dutch Catholics organized the International Catholic Office for Refugee Affairs. The International Catholic Office opened a branch in New York, but it closed in 1941 after its director entered the military. The Utrecht office was overrun by Nazis in May of 1940.

Archbishop Joseph Rummel, Chair of the Committee for Catholic Refugees

Equally important was the legal environment in which the agencies operated. The United States had no refugee visas, and it required that arrivals appear unlikely to become public charges. This was an especially difficult qualification to meet during the Great Depression, when jobs were scarce. One might think the result would be that there were more refugee plumbers than professors, as the economy needed more plumbers. However, it was easier for the helping agencies to place professors, physicians, lawyers, musicians, architects, engineers, and other white-collar professionals into jobs. Professionals had résumés that could be duplicated and circulated, and Catholic directories had lists of Catholic hospitals and institutions of higher education where the résumés might be sent.

Image of Sorrowful Blessed Mother with hands reaching up to her. Latin under the picture reads “Hail Our Salvation!”

Program for Committee for Catholic Refugees fundraising concert.

It is unclear how many refugees obtained jobs through circulating résumés. Father Joseph Oesterreicher seems to have obtained his job through old-fashioned patience. Father Oesterreicher had a harrowing escape from Austria in 1938, where his parents, left behind, died in concentration camps. He fled to France and so had to flee again in 1940, arriving in New York. He managed to afford a room at Leo House, a hostel for German Catholic immigrants, while he helped out at the city’s German-language parishes. He started helping the International Catholic Office for Refugee Affairs, providing ways to contact people behind the lines in France. In 1953, he resumed the scholarship he had to abandon in Austria, becoming head of the Institute of Judeo-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University. He went on to help draft the section on Catholic teaching regarding Judaism in Nostra Aetate, Vatican II’s statement on Catholic relations with non-Christian faiths.

Father John Oesterreicher working to assist fellow refugees. Leo House still receives guests today.

The assisting organizations seem to have been best at handing out advice. It was free and, fortunately, they seemed to get it right. Their most famous case involved the von Trapp Family Singers. Contrary to The Sound of Music, the von Trapps didn’t climb every mountain to escape. They were on a singing tour in the United States when they were informed that Captain von Trapp would be inducted into the Nazi navy upon his return to Austria. The von Trapp family consulted the Committee for Catholic Refugees, which consulted immigration lawyers. It turned out the von Trapps qualified for immigration visas, but visas could not be issued from inside the United States. The von Trapps suspended their tour, visited a US consulate in Canada to apply for visas, and re-entered the United States, now as immigrants rather than traveling performers.

Handwritten thanks from Maria von Trapp to Archbishop Joseph Rummel for assistance in securing immigration visas.

When more help, and especially material help, was needed, difficult decisions had to be made, and lives could be lost. In 1939, the Catholic Committee for Refugees became aware of the case of Lotte Eckert. Born Jewish, she converted to Catholicism, became a widow and then a mother. She and her daughter Gabrielle were non-Aryans under the Nuremberg Laws, and so she sought to escape. One option was the Kindertransport, moving children from Europe out of Hitler’s reach in the United Kingdom. However, Catholics were especially anxious not to break up families, and it was unclear who would provide for little Gabby. Archbishop Rummel approved travel money if both mother and child could be moved to safety, but by the time he did so, Germany and England were at war, and transportation between them was cut off. Lotte and Gabby Eckert both died in concentration camps.

Fr. Joseph Ostrmann, Committee for Catholic Refugees Secretary informing his contacts in Germany money is available to transport a refugee family, and his contact informing him it is too late. Courtesy of Leo Hiemer.

The Vatican observes a World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sunday, September 24, 2023. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops precedes that day with a National Migration Week, September 18-23, 2023. It is a period to reflect on our current migration situation. We may look upon our current migration issues and wonder how they will ever be resolved. However, we can draw on resources developed for us at a great price. We have not known what to do before, and sometimes people have already suffered for that ignorance. We can learn from that past to study our present situation and figure out what’s best now.

September 21, 2023