Refugees:
35,000–50,000 refugees, of whom roughly 25,000 were in transit.

Political situation:
Parliamentary monarchy; foreign policy of neutrality; tense economic situation, high unemployment; close economic relations with Germany. Occupied by Germany from May 1940; cooperation with the occupying force.

Conditions of entry:
Visa exemption until September 1939; official authorisation was required for longer stays. May 1938: Closure of the borders, followed by increasing levels of illegal immigration; temporary relaxation after the November pogroms. Access to the labour market restricted from 1934.

The Netherlands was a preferred transit land but also a country of refuge from 1933. The geographical proximity to Germany and the initial possibility to enter without a visa made it easier for the mostly Jewish refugees to cross the border. Many emigrant writers who could no longer publish in Germany found important publication possibilities in the Dutch exile publishing houses Allert de Lange and Querido. By 1940 over 200 German-language titles had been published that were even sold initially under false publisher names in German bookstores. From 1939, immigrants were interned in detention camps; from 1942 they were deported to the German extermination camps. Some of the victims of persecution managed to survive by going into hiding.