The Lifeline: Salomon Grumbach and the Quest for Safety

During the first months of World War II, nearly one thousand refugees and asylum seekers held in French internment camps sought the help of one man: Salomon Grumbach. Meredith Scott’s The Lifeline is a ground-breaking study of Grumbach, an Alsatian Jew, journalist, and socialist politician who became one of Europe’s most important interwar refugee advocates. Focusing on his remarkable life in Germany and France, it uncovers the identities that drove his international crusades for democracy and human rights. The Lifeline offers lessons that transcend national boundaries and historical moments, challenging us to rethink our ideas about resistance, mobilization, and activism.