Amherst Reads July 2019: The World of Aufbau by Peter Schrag '53

Aufbau—a German-language weekly, published in New York and circulated nationwide—was an essential platform for the generation of refugees from Hitler and the displaced people and concentration camp survivors who arrived in the United States after World War II. The publication served to link thousands of readers looking for friends and loved ones in every part of the world. In its pages, Aufbau focused on concerns that strongly impacted this community in the aftermath of the war: anti-Semitism in the United States and in Europe, the ever-changing immigration and naturalization procedures, debates about the designation of Hitler refugees as enemy aliens, questions about punishment for the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes, the struggle for compensation and restitution, and the fight for a Jewish homeland.