Potenciál migrace - Hranice, karantény a osudy meziválečných uprchlíků – Foletti Ivan (2022)

The political situation and escalating social tensions in the interwar countries of Russia and Germany drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and forced them to seek refuge abroad. Crossing borders on the way to safety, however, was fraught with many difficulties. Refugees from Russia were affected, among other things, by anti-epidemic measures aimed at stopping a deadly wave of typhus. Similar measures stood in the way of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany a few years later. The escape across borders and the experience of emigration also manifested in the life stories and works of writers Irene Némirovsky and Hélène Iswolsky, as well as art historians Nikodim Kondakov, André Grabar, Richard Krautheimer, and Ernst Kitzinger. Although they had to face numerous hardships, life in exile also provided them with many new opportunities, through which they significantly enriched the society that accepted them. The book discusses events from a hundred years ago, yet the themes it addresses – border closures, sanitary measures, and emigration – are painfully relevant even today.