Dominican Republic
(North America)

In the 1930s, General Rafael Trujillo took control of the Dominican Republic, starting one of the longest and cruelest dictatorships of modern times. At one point the Dominican army killed thousands of Haitians. After that massacre became public, Trujillo tried to rehabilitate his reputation by agreeing at the Evian Conference in 1938 to take in Jewish refugees. The Dominican Republic was the only country that accepted that task.

Political Scenario

Following the overthrow of President Horacio Vazquez in 1930, General Rafael Trujillo assumed control of the Dominican Republic and established a dictatorship. Trujillo had been trained by U.S. Marines in 1918. He was elevated to commander in chief of the National Army in 1927. Under his leadership, the armed forces did not try to stop a revolution that began in 1930. The revolution started partly because of economic changes from the Great Depression. Trujillo soon seized power for himself.

Trujillo was successful in reducing foreign debt, and maintaining political and economic stability. This attracted foreign investors and grants from the U.S. government. His dictatorship, however, was one of the longest, cruelest, and most absolute in modern times. He had complete control of the military, he appointed family members to key offices, and he coordinated every aspect of Dominican society. Trujillo took ownership of virtually everything he touched, amassing a vast fortune for himself. His horrible human rights abuses include murdering thousands of civilians and the jailing and torturing people who rebelled against him.

Immigration

In 1937, reports came out that the Dominican Army had massacred an estimated 20,000 Haitians. After this news broke, Trujillo tried to rehabilitate his image. So at the Evian Conference in France in 1938 (click on France’s red dot on the globe for more information on the conference) Trujillo agreed to bring in additional Jewish refugees. The Dominican Republic was the only country willing to let more Jews into their country at that time. But Trujillo took advantage of this opportunity to bring wealthy and white immigrants into the country. This followed racial prejudices that were common at the time. The country agreed to accept between 50,000 to 100,000 refugees, but only issued about 5,000 visas to European Jews between 1938 and 1944. However, a majority of these recipients did not end up settling in the Dominican Republic.