Ensnared between Hitler and Stalin: Refugee Scientists in the USSR

"Here is twentieth-century history with a human face. This book provides a necessary and moving next step beyond chilling statistics of murder by Hitler and Stalin, on the one hand, and, on the other, heart-warming stories of academic refugees from Nazi Germany welcomed and prospering in Britain and the US. It shows individuals’ struggles in all their variety, sometimes idealistic, often desperate – and always at the mercy of luck."

Robert Bud, Emeritus Keeper, Science Museum, London

"David Zimmerman details German-speaking scholars’ and scientists’ stories and cultural adjustment while revealing their societal and academic contributions to the Soviet Union. He also demonstrates the ferociousness with which the Nazi regime persecuted these experts since 1933. The book is an obvious step forward in English-speaking language scholarship. At the same time, it is distressingly timely given the current political and military conflicts as they again lead to growing numbers of refugee scientists globally."

Frank W. Stahnisch, author of A New Field in Mind and AMF/Hannah Professor in the History of Medicine and Health Care, University of Calgary

"How academics were caught between Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union shows how high expectations of a land of refuge were cruelly dashed. The group of thirty-six36 researchers featured in this book had a creative but brief period before being subjected to Soviet imprisonment in appalling conditions. Eventually most were returned back to Hitler’s Germany, putting their lives at grave risk. This is a thrilling and impeccably researched microstudy of how two dictatorships manipulated a group of high-achieving group of academics’ lives."

Paul Weindling, Research Professor in the History of Medicine, Oxford Brookes University