As international concern began to grow during the Second world war over the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people, Franklyn D. Roosevelt called an international conference held in Evian, Switzerland in 1938.

Delegations from 32 countries did in fact attend the conference however only one Head of State from all these countries offered refuge to the Jewish people and that was Dictator Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. He said that he would accept up to 200,000 refugees into the Dominican Republic.

Of course Dictator Trujillo had ulterior motives for this great and public act.  He needed to regain immense favour once more in the public and world political eye as he had fallen into international disrepute after ordering the slaughter of more than 30,000 Haitian people by his soldiers.

He also saw this as a wonderful opportunity to gain a productive group of people which would be good for the Dominican economy and also from his personal point of view, a quick way to “whiten” the Dominican population. It was also said that he would be given US$5000 in gold per refugee he accepted into the country and it would be paid by the Jewish community of New York.

This was just the opportunity with enough political motives that Trujillo needed so he assigned part of the coast line from Sosua to Sabaneta on the north of the island to receive and house the immigrants.  With help from the Jewish Agricultural Association of America (AGRO) they financed the foundation of this new settlement and the project in turn was to be administered by the Dominican Republic Association (DORSA) in the style of a “kibbutz”.

Again underhand motives took precedence and rather than just open the Dominican Doors and let everyone in, a careful selection process was undertaken.  DORSA as just mentioned wanted to establish a “model” community and desired as productive a group of people as possible so only healthy couples and young men were to be accepted.

Inevitably many emergency weddings were arranged but unfortunately for many the selection process and paperwork took so long to complete many people who applied never made the journey across to the Caribbean as it began to get increasingly difficult if not impossible for anyone to flee from Europe.  With the lengthy paper work and also torpedoing of some of the ships crossing the Atlantic already with refugees on board it meant that only 1,500 refugees actually made it to the Dominican Republic out of an expected and anticipated 200,000.

Upon arriving to the Dominican Republic it soon became apparent that it would be a monumental task to attempt to carve a civilized life out of what was really just pure wilderness. Land had to be cleared, buildings planned and laid out, farms planted and general organization. Many of the Jewish settlers saw it though as a small price to pay for their freedom in a country that offered them integration and acceptance and no Nazi persecution.

Eventually Sosua began to grow as many jobs became available for local people and before long Sosua was turning into a small village with a network of roads, it had a general store, clinic, synagogue, mechanic’s shop, hotel, cinema and school.

The first teacher Mr Hess still lives in Sosua and is the founder of the Louis Hess School on Pedro Clisante, Sosua (see footnote at the end of this article).

It soon became apparent though that the land in Sosua was more suitable for cattle farming than for general agriculture. The kibbutz style system also showed signs of failing so the land was divided into some 50 separate farms. A cooperative was formed and a dairy factory and slaughterhouse were created. To this day in the Dominican Republic in any supermarket up and down the country you will see dairy produce being sold from “Productos Sosua”. Eventually a community began to grow as Jewish men took Dominican wives and established families along the north coast and Sosua itself. With the war ending a lot of folk who had never really acclimatized decided to move away and start afresh in different countries.  Only 400 Jewish people actually stayed.

At present there are only around 10% of the original settlers left in Sosua. Productos Sosua as mentioned continues to thrive and the synagogue is still here as well as some of the old buildings and Mr Hess’s house and school. You can go and visit the Jewish museum next to Casa Marina Hotel and the synagogue and take a look at the photographs, newspaper clippings and documents left behind by the settlers.

Footnote:
I (the author of this article) sat down with Mr Hess last week (early Jan 2007) and had a drink with him, he is now in his nineties and puts his good health down to his daily Vitamin B supplement which is a dose of  Brugal, Bermudaz and Barcelo (all Dominican rums – of course!).