Sosúa, Dominican Republic

Site of a Jewish refugee settlement administered by the Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA) under the umbrella of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. At the 1938 Evian Conference, General Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic offered to accept as many as 100,000 Jewish refugees into the small Caribbean island nation located between Cuba and Puerto Rico on the island of Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti.

Established as an agricultural community, Sosúa was located on the site of an abandoned banana plantation. The largely urban, professional Jewish immigrants struggled with the harsh tropical climate and conditions in their new home, but quickly built infrastructure, including a school and individual homesteads.

Ultimately, around 850 refugees settled in Sosúa during the war. Many of them left in the postwar years, as they found the means to immigrate to the United States, for example. Today, there are few Jewish residents left in Sosúa, but it was a haven to those who found shelter there during the war.