In 1936, the American anthropologist Melville Herskovits came to the assistance of Paul Kirchhoff, a German émigré, to prevent his deportation from the United States at the expiration of his visitor's visa. Herskovits urged him to see Samuel A Goldsmith, executive officer of the Jewish Charities of Chicago, to seek financial assistance to leave for Mexico to avoid deportation to Germany and almost certain incarceration in a concentration camp such as Dachau or Buchenwald. Herskovits was successful in arranging sufficient funding so Kirchhoff and his wife Joanna could find refuge in Mexico. In the years between his arrival in London in 1931 and his exile to Mexico Kirchhoff struggled to find political safety and academic security outside of Germany.

Dr. Geoffrey Gray is a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Studies (AIATSIS), Canberra and Adjunct Research Associate in the History School at Monash University, Melbourne.


Einladung [PDF]