So far so close

The incredible story of the Jewish survivors of the Dominican Republic

Audio 48:30

The small Jewish museum of Sosua mainly concentrates photos which tell the beginnings of the Jewish colony of El Batey, in the north of the island.

© Sandra Cohen-Rose & Colin Rose

By: Céline Develay Mazurelle Follow

2 mins

Journey to the Caribbean, where a fascinating, ambiguous and little-known page in the history of humanity was written.

(Replay)

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1938: when Europe was about to fall into Nazi horror and Austria, annexed by Hitler's forces, had just "given in to force", the Jews of Germany and Europe taken the roads of exile but the world is already closing its doors to refugees… except for the small Dominican Republic located on the island of Hispaniola.

At that time, during the Evian conference, Rafael Trujillo, dictator president of the Dominican Republic, offered to welcome 100,000 Jewish refugees to his island.

Finally, less than a thousand will be able to reach these lands bathed by the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea, very far from the old Europe soon to be in flames and blood...

Today, on this island which has become a popular seaside destination, descendants of this unique Jewish community perpetuate the memory of their ancestors who contributed to building the small town of Sosua in the North.

And a French writer Catherine Bardon, a great lover of the Dominican Republic, author of a great romantic saga around this story, also contributes to sharing it.

It is she who will guide us from Santo Domingo to Sosua in the footsteps of this incredible story. 

A report by François-Xavier Freland.

To extend the trip:

- The saga

was published by Éditions Les Escales and republished in France by Pocket

- The website of

- The site of the

brings together many online resources on the small Dominican Jewish community

- The page of this tourist site is full of historical information and photographs of

- The Sosua photo archives of the JDC or

 which, from 1914, came to the aid of the Jews of Europe and participated in the settlement of the Jews of Sosua. 

- More information on this organization that was the JDC, otherwise called the "Joint", in

, of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

Moments of celebration in Sosua, ten years after the installation of the Jewish colony of El Batey.

© Rene Kischamaer

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• Dominican Republic

• Judaism

• Story

• Refugees

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