This is a social history of refugees escaping Hungary after the Bolshevik-type revolution of
1919 the ensuing counterrevolution and the rise of anti-Semitism. Largely Jewish and German
before World War I the Hungarian middle class was torn by the disastrous war the partitioning
of Hungary in the Treaty of Trianon and the numerus clausus act XXV in 1920 that seriously
curtailed the number of Jews admitted to higher education. Hungary's outstanding future
professionals whether Jewish Liberal or Socialist felt compelled to leave the country and
head to German-speaking universities in Austria Czechoslovakia and Germany. When Hitler came
to power these exiles were to flee again many on the fringes of the huge German emigration.
Emotionally prepared by their earlier threatening experiences in Hungary they were quick to
recognize the need to uproot themselves again. Many fled to the United States where their
double exile catalyzed the USA into an active enemy of Nazi Germany and stimulated the
transplantation of European modernism into American art and music. To their surprise the
refugees also encountered anti-Semitism in the USA. The book is based on extensive archival
work in the USA and Germany.
