The Lisbon Route: Entry and Escape in Nazi Europe

371 Pages·2011·1.77 MB·English

by  Ronald Weber

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Entry and Escape in Nazi Europe
RONALD WEBER
IVAN R. DEE
Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
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Ivan R. Dee
A member of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.ivanrdee.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Distributed by National Book Network
Copyright © 2011 by Ronald Weber
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer
Published in the United States of America
who may quote passages in a review.
by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowmanlittlefield.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weber, Ronald, 1934–
Estover Road
The Lisbon route : entry and escape in Nazi Europe / Ronald Weber.
Plymouth PL6 7PY
p. cm.
United Kingdom
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-56663-876-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-56663-892-0
Copyright © 2007 by
(electronic)
1. World War, 1939–1945—Portugal—Lisbon. 2. Exiles—Portugal—Lisbon—
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
History—20th century. 3. Immigrants—Portugal—Lisbon—History—20th
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
century. 4. Escapes—Portugal—Lisbon—History—20th century. 5. Neutrality—
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer
Portugal—Lisbon—History—20th century. 6. Lisbon (Portugal)—History—20th
who may quote passages in a review.
century. 7. Lisbon (Portugal)—Social life and customs—20th century. 8. Lisbon
(Portugal)—Biography. 9. World War, 1939–1945—Biography. 10. World War,
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
1939–1945—Social aspects—Portugal—Lisbon. I. Title.
D763.P82L593 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
940.53086’9140946942—dc22
I nsert CIP data 2010047524
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For Pat, Liz, Andrea, and Kathy
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Maps xi
1 Hub of the Western Universe 1
2 Tramping Forward 27
3 Whatever We Can 53
4 The Last Lap 77
5 Gaiety, Plenty, and Brilliant Lights 95
6 Living There 121
7 Celebrité de Passage 143
8 Holding Out Hopes 171
9 Gloriously Neutral 193
10 War without Guns 209
11 The Seething Cauldron 231
12 One World to Another 251
13 Wolfram by Day 277
14 Where to Spend One’s Holiday 293
vii
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viii Contents
Acknowledgments 305
Notes 307
Sources 339
Index 349
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PREFACE
T
he script of Casablanca opens with a capsule account of Lisbon as the
escape hatch from Nazi Europe:
A long shot of a revolving globe. As it revolves, lines of fleeing refugees are su-
perimposed over it. Over this scene comes the voice of a narrator.
narrator: With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in
imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the free-
dom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point. But
not everybody could get to Lisbon directly; and so, a tortuous, round-
about refugee trail sprang up.
After a map displays the circuitous Lisbon route of the film, the narra-
tor checks off the main stops along the way: Paris to Marseille, across the
Mediterranean to Oran, around the rim of Africa to Casablanca in French
Morocco, and finally—after “wait in Casablanca, and wait, and wait and
wait”—to Lisbon.
The Lisbon Route tells the story of refugees like Casablanca’s Ilsa and
Victor Laszlo who fled to Lisbon in wartime, transforming the tranquil port
city on the edge of the Continent into occupied Europe’s last open door
to freedom. The great bulk of refugees made a land journey to Portugal,
and consequently it was in Lisbon rather than Casablanca where they often
waited out their long delays. At the same time Lisbon offered escape from
Europe, it allowed entry to it, and the following pages also trace the flow of
figures who had reason to journey toward the war zone. Whether coming
or going, I view those who took the Lisbon route against a background of
the illuminated city they reached after the lights of Europe had largely gone
out—a city, unlike the City of Light between the wars, that was a funnel
to pass through more than a final destination. Those who reached Lisbon
ix
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