Philo-Atlas: Handbuch fuer die Juedische Auswanderung [“Guide for Jewish Emigration]. Edited by Ernst G. Lowenthal and Hans Oppenheimer.

Styled after the popular “Philo Lexikon,” this publication is a remarkable record of its time. Issued barely two weeks prior to the outbreak of Kristallnacht (9/10 November, 1938), this appears as nothing but a tourist guide-book. Yet its contents reveal a far more urgent need: An alphabetical survey of countries world-wide with their respective rules for obtaining entry-visas. “These are no tourist formalities, for now survival depends on them. Which countries still accept migrants? How much money do they demand? For which occupations is there a need? Which diseases need one be prepared for? Where to find local organizations who can assist immigrants?” The Jewish owned Philo Verlag, was forcibly closed a month following the publication of this guide, by which time the Nazis decided they were no longer willing to permit Jews to leave Germany – even if they could find a country willing to take them in, which after the Evian Conference of earlier that summer, was most unlikely. The Jews who remained in Germany were now quite trapped.