When the legislation on restoration of professional service went into effect in Germany on 7 April 1933, all Jewish academic and support staff at universities were dismissed. A temporary exception was made for Frontkämpfers, people who had fought on the German side in World War I. These dismissals – designed to ‘Aryanize’ academe – sparked an exodus of over 2,000 intellectuals. German learning was well-respected in the rest of the world, so many eventually found a new appointment in Europe, the United States or elsewhere. To support this group the Notgemeinschaft Deutscher Wissenschaftler im Ausland (Emergency Association of German Science Abroad) was founded in Zurich in 1933 (it moved to London in 1935) (entry 84).

The name was inspired by the Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft (Emergency Association of German Science) which had been founded in 1920 to inject new vigour into academic life in Germany after World War I. In the Netherlands an Academic Study fund was set up in 1933, also with the aim of providing academics with temporary financial and other aid (entries 83 and 253).