Europe

Nazi Germany and Austria: Refugees Who Became U.S. Diplomats

From Nazi Germany and Austria to the service of the United States.

Persecution and flight

After Hitler came to power in 1933, Jews in Germany were stripped of their rights step by step. Austria was annexed in March 1938, and the Kristallnacht pogrom followed that November. Families sought visas anywhere they could, and U.S. immigration quotas made American visas hard to get.

The Kindertransport

In 1938 and 1939, the Kindertransport carried roughly 10,000 children, most of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to safety in Britain. Many never saw their parents again.

Refugees who shaped American foreign policy

Refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria went on to fill some of the most senior posts in American diplomacy, including Secretary of State, Counselor of the Department, Assistant Secretary for Human Rights, and ambassador.

Diplomats from Nazi Germany and Austria

W. Michael BlumenthalEscaped Nazi Germany to wartime Shanghai, reached America as a refugee, and rose to senior economic posts at State.John Gunther DeanA Jewish refugee from Breslau who became ambassador five times and led the 1975 evacuation of Phnom Penh.Henry A. GrunwaldFled Vienna after the Anschluss and returned decades later as U.S. ambassador to Austria.George W. JaegerEscaped Vienna on the Kindertransport in 1939 and later joined the U.S. Foreign Service.Henry A. KissingerFled Nazi Germany with his Jewish family at fifteen and later led the Department of State.George W. LandauLeft Vienna for Colombia in 1938, reached the United States in 1941, and became ambassador three times in South America.Andreas F. LowenfeldArrived as an eight-year-old refugee from Berlin and later advised the Department during the Cuban Missile Crisis.Karl F. MautnerEscaped Vienna in 1939, lost his parents at Auschwitz, landed at D-Day, and joined the Foreign Service.George F. MullerEscaped Austria in 1938 and spent three decades as a Foreign Service officer in Berlin, Bangkok, and Europe.Robert G. NeumannSurvived a Nazi concentration camp as a young man and later served as U.S. ambassador in three countries.Felix RohatynA child refugee who fled the Nazis across three continents and returned to France as U.S. ambassador.Richard SchifterEscaped Vienna alone at fifteen; his parents were murdered in the Holocaust. He later led the Department's human rights bureau.Helmut SonnenfeldtEscaped Berlin as a boy in 1938 and became Counselor of the Department of State.Herbert J. SpiroFled Hamburg with his family in 1938 and later served as U.S. ambassador in Central Africa.