Governing refugee space: The quasi-carceral regime of Amsterdam’s Lloyd Hotel, a German-Jewish refugee camp in the prelude to World War II

Abstract

Through analysing the correspondence between key refugee camp commanders based at Amsterdam’s Lloyd Hotel and different authorities involved in Dutch refugee matters, this paper examines how “the Dutch state” responded to German-Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in the prelude to World War II. Using a largely Foucauldian approach to discipline, power, security and governmentality to examine the bio-, macro-and micro-politics behind the management of these refugees and their lived spaces, we seek to illustrate how the Lloyd Hotel formed part of a quasi-carceral spatial regime implemented to segregate and contain those with an unclear legal status at a time of political confusion. The article also seeks to show how the involvement of different authorities at different scales brought serious implications for the status, spatial regimentation, mobilities and future of the refugees. © Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed.