Jewish War Brides of World War II

Unsung History

In the ravages of post-World War II Europe, some Jewish women survivors of the Holocaust found the beginnings of a new life when they met – and married – American (and Canadian and British) men serving with the Allied forces. These women were part of a much larger group of war brides, who came to the United States in such large numbers that they required a change in immigration law, but these Jewish war brides faced additional challenges, from language barriers to the memory of the trauma they’d experienced to finding a community in their new home. Dr. Robin Judd, Associate Professor of History at the Ohio State University and author of Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust, joins this episode to help us explore the story of these women.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Hava Nagila - Orchestra Clarinet,” by JuliusH, available for use via the Pixabay content license. The episode image is “Hanns Ann Alexander wedding 1946,” taken on May 19, 1946, and posted on Flickr by David Lisbona; the image was adapted for use under CC BY 2.0 DEED.

Additional Sources:

• “Displaced Persons,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• “Coming To America: The War Brides Act of 1945,” The National WWII Museum, December 28, 2020.
• “Here Came The War Brides 60 Years Ago, a Vast Wave of British Women Followed Their New Loves to a New Land,” by Tamara Jones, The Washington Post, February 12, 2006.
• “Band of Sisters,” by Sarah Kewshaw, The New York Times, July 6, 2008.
• “America Denied Refugees After the End of World War II—Just As We Are Today,” by David Nasaw, Time Magazine, September 17, 2020.
• “Statement by the President Upon Signing the Displaced Persons Act,” Harry S. Truman, June 25, 1948, Truman Library.
• “Flory Jagoda: Singer Songwriter, Storyteller, and Composer,” Ladino Music Today as a Tool of Storytelling and Preservation, Curated by Laurel Comiter, Gabriel Mordoch, and Gabriel Duque, University of Michigan Library.

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