From Lisbon to Jamaica: A study of British refugee rescue during the Second World War

In late 1941 some 500 Jews, refugees from Nazism, were sitting in Lisbon awaiting an unknown fate. The Portuguese fascist government, though not espousing anti‐Semitic ideas, none the less served an expulsion order against these refugees in November 1941. In desperation, and with nowhere to go, the refugees approached the British government with a request that it agree to allow them sanctuary anywhere in the British Empire. With one day remaining before their forced expulsion, the Jews were granted entry to the British colony of Jamaica, at British expense. This article, an investigation into the circumstances and fate of these refugees, examines the way in which their rescue took place and why it is of significance to the overall record of British refugee rescue during the Second World War. It also offers some reasons to account for the British action, which took place in spite of all existing precedent and practice.