By Kallie Phillips

 Between 1933 and 1939, even before the war began, over 90,000 Austrian and German Jews fled from Nazi controlled countries.

 Escape became much more difficult once the war began. Countries willing to accept Jewish refugees were few. However, soon, in most cases, escaping became a matter of life and death.

 Relatively few people helped the Jews in escaping. Among theses people were some organizations both local and international. Some of the organizations were Joint Distribution Committee, Jewish Agency for Palestine, and the World Jewish Congress.

 300,000 Polish Jews, which is almost 10% of the Polish Jewish population, fled to the Soviet zone.

 Out of 30,000 Jews admitted to Switzerland, 20,000 were turned down. Spain, however, permitted 30,000 Jewish refugees to enter crossing to Portugal.

 18,000 eastern and central Jews fled to Palestine. Many boats sailing through the Black Sea had to refuel in Turkey, however, Turkey tried to keep them from docking. Despite the effort more than 16,000 Jews passed through Turkey to Palestine.

 Italian forces protected Jews in occupied areas. The occupation areas protected at least 43,000 Jews.

 France  Belgium  Netherlands  Denmark  Czechoslovakia  Switzerland  Palestine  Siberia  Asia  Soviet union  Sweden  Spain  Portugal  Lisbon  South America  U.S.  Greece  Yugoslavia