For families, exile often meant separation. In many cases bureaucratic regulations made it impossible for all family members to go into exile together or to move to the same country. Special aid programmes helped some families to send children to countries that were not open to their parents. Graves and other places of remembrance remained behind; nobody knew if they would ever be able to return. 

For the many families who ended up spread over different countries, letter writing became the only means of obtaining information and staying in contact. Communication became increasingly difficult with the onset of war. Yet even during the war, many continued to receive news – in an encrypted form or via an indirect route – of successful escapes, but also of the deportation of relatives to concentration camps.