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Rome-Berlin Axis Agreement

Italy, under fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, concludes an alliance with Germany's Hitler. Mussolini later issues anti-Jewish legislation and enforces persecution of Italian Jewish community.

Barbara Bandler is born in Győr, Hungary

Her parents, Margit and Alexander Bandler, are Hungarian citizens but live in Italy, where Alexander owns a hotel on the Adriatic island of Lussinpiccolo, just off the coast of what is today Croatia. They return to Italy soon after Barbara’s birth

Publication of the “Race Manifesto” in Italy

Published anonymously but drawn up by a scholar with close ties to the Fascist government, the article outlines in ten clauses a theoretical framework for the concept of race in Fascist Italy, according to which Italians are essentially Aryan and Jews do not belong to the Italian race.

Italy adopts antisemitic laws

Italy adopts a series of antisemitic “Race Laws.” A September 5, 1938 law prohibits Jews from studying or teaching at Italian public schools and universities. A September 7, 1938 law retroactively annuls Italian citizenship granted to Jewish immigrants to Italy after 1919 and revokes permanent residency in Italy for foreign Jews, requiring them to leave the country within six months. Like the Nuremberg Race Laws and other Nazi legislation, additional laws prohibits marriage between Jews and “Aryans,” define who is Jewish, and require all Italian Jews to register, as well as placing restrictions on professional activities and business ownership.

Italy and Germany sign the “Pact of Steel”

Expanding on the alliance between the two countries since the Rome-Berlin Axis of October 1936, in the “Pact of Steel” (officially the Pact of Friendship and Alliance) Italy and Germany agree to military cooperation and mutual defense. Despite this agreement, Italy remains neutral during the first year of the war, only entering the war as Germany’s ally in June 1940.

Rafael Trujillo and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee sign an agreement

The document formalized the first wave of Jewish immigration to a 26,000 acre agricultural settlement in Sosúa, on the northern coast of Hispaniola. The New York City-based American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee set up a separate arm, the Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA), to establish Sosúa as an agricultural community.

France formally surrenders to Nazi Germany

Much of France falls to Nazi domination. Parts of southern France are governed by a Nazi collaborator government headed by Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, called the "Vichy" regime after its capital.

Vichy France enacts anti-Jewish legislation

The collaborationist Vichy government enacts a series of anti-Jewish laws in accordance with Nazi policy.

Germany orders closure of US diplomatic missions

After the US State Department orders the closure of German consulates in the United States because German diplomats are suspected of spying, Germany and Italy order all American consulates in Axis-occupied Europe to cease operation, closing the door for refugees fleeing Nazi persecution to apply for immigration to the United States.

Bandlers set sail for the Dominican Republic

Aboard the Portuguese ship Nyassa, the family sail for the Caribbean, making a stop at Ellis Island on the way.

DORSA establishes a hotel in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic for new Jewish settlers

Disease, fatigue, poor sanitation, the brutal sun, and the emotional distress of dislocation all take their toll on the island’s new Jewish residents. DORSA organizers recognize the need to provide ailing refugees with a place to recuperate from their exertions, and ask Alexander and Margit Bandler to manage the refuge.

The Battle of the Caribbean

In an attempt to disrupt the Allied supply of oil and other material by targeting their points of origin in the Caribbean, German and Italian submarines torpedoed 263 ships in the Caribbean, including two Dominican ships. The S. S. Presidente Trujillo and the San Rafael, both named by the Dominican president after himself, were sunk, and 25 crew members were killed.

Allies denounce Nazi mass murder of Jews

Reports of the Nazi plan to murder all of the Jewish people in Europe begin to circulate in the second half of 1942 and are widely reported in U.S. newspapers in late November. On December 17 1942, the Allied governments denounce the mass murder of European Jews under Nazi control. Though Nazi crimes are now publicized, Allied forces do not target Nazi killing installations or prioritize the rescue of Jews.

Ads for Margit Bandler’s cosmetics company appear in American Jewish newspapers

Lori (Elenor) Mayer, one of Margit’s childhood friends who had immigrated to Boston in the mid-1930s, sees the advertisement in 1945, and sends a letter to Margit in Jarabacoa. Lori and her husband, Eugene, later secure work visas for the Bandlers to enter the U.S.

Nazis install new fascist government in Hungary

Nazis arrest Hungarian leader Miklos Horthy and install a new government under Ferenc Szalasi, leader of the fascist and radically antisemitic Arrow Cross Party.

Mass executions of Budapest Jews

Between December 1944 and January 1945, approximately 20,000 Jews from Budapest's ghetto are taken to the banks of the Danube, where they are murdered and their bodies thrown into the river.

Soviet forces liberate Budapest

After nearly two months, Soviet forces succeed in liberating Budapest from Nazi and Hungarian fascist control. Approximately 100,000 Jews survive, mostly thanks to protections offered by foreign diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg.

Bandler family leaves the Dominican Republic for the U.S.

With little notice, Barbara boards a bus to Santo Domingo, then a plane to Miami, FL, then another bus to Boston, MA where she and her family begin their new American life.

Sosúa project dwindles

By the late 1940s, only 275 settlers remain in Sosúa, which had once been home to many hundreds more refugees. DORSA’s experiment under Trujillo never becomes a profitable agricultural settlement, though a successful dairy cooperative founded by Jewish immigrants flourishes there for decades.

Hungarian People's Republic established

Soviet forces had remained in Hungary after liberating the country from Nazi occupation in 1944. After the war, Hungary had held democratic elections, but under Soviet influence the Communists successively neutralized all other parties until, in 1949, voters were presented with ballots with only one party list. The newly elected Communist legislature adopted a new, Soviet-style constitution and became a Soviet satellite.

Barbara becomes a U.S. citizen

Just a few months before her 16th birthday, Barbara takes the oath to become a United States citizen.

Barbara Bandler graduates high school

She and her boyfriend, Howard Steinmetz, make plans to wed, but her father insists she complete her college education before marrying. The two reach an agreement, and Barbara and Howard are married in 1956, after Barbara is accepted to college.

Barbara Bandler and Howard Steinmetz are married

Hungarian Revolution of 1956

Student demonstrations in Budapest calling for political and social reforms grow into a broad-based, nationwide popular uprising against the Soviet-backed government of the Hungarian People's Republic. Despite the movement's initial success, the revolution is brutally crushed by Soviet military intervention. Some 200,000 people flee the country in the course of the revolution.

Rafael Trujillo assassinated

Trujillo’s reign grows notoriously bloody throughout the 1950s, though his repression is not felt in Sosúa. Still, political unrest, economic woes, and scandal plague the General’s rule. In May 1961, the embattled dictator is assassinated by a group of conspirators who ambushed his turquoise Chevrolet Bel Air. Trujillo’s death sets off a period of political instability in the Dominican Republic that drives many of the few remaining Jewish residents to emigrate.

Barbara and Howard move to Boulder, CO

After vacationing in Colorado for decades, the pair finally decide to settle permanently.