The political situation and escalating social tensions in interwar Russia and Germany drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and forced them to seek refuge abroad. However, crossing the borders on the way to safety involved many difficulties. Among other things, refugees from Russia were hit by anti-epidemic measures designed to stop the deadly typhus wave. Similar measures stood in the way of German Jews fleeing Hitler a few years later. The flight across the border and the experience of emigration were also reflected in the lives and works of writers Irène Némirovsky and Hélène Iswolsky and art historians Nikodim Kondakov, André Grabar, Richard Krautheimer, and Ernst Kitzinger. Although they had to face numerous difficulties, life in exile also provided them with many new opportunities that greatly enriched the society that welcomed them. The book deals with events that are a hundred years old, but the themes it addresses – border closures, sanitary measures, and emigration – are still pressingly relevant today.
