Migration, White Slavery, and Social Activism in Eastern Europe, 1902-1913

This paper looks at organizations that worked in East European cities such as Lemberg and Czernowitz to combat the white slave trade, the international trafficking of women. White slavery was fueled in part by the emigration of impoverished young women, many of whom were Jewish, searching for employment and better lives. Sources ranging from organizational reports to personal papers located at the Leo Baeck Institute archives will be used to examine the conditions that led women to migrate and the actions taken to protect them. The paper will argue that migration and mobility in urban environments contributed to the social conditions which made girls and young women vulnerable to traffickers and at the same time influenced the development of activism by individuals and organizations, which promoted education and social justice for these women. The work undertaken by existing organizations, such as the B’nai B’rith, which established a special committee, organized conferences, trained social workers, and sent missionaries to the East, will be examined alongside the creation of new organizations such as the Jewish Women’s League in Berlin in 1904, which developed railway station aid programs throughout the East and established a home for Jewish women and girls in Isenburg. While Bertha Pappenheim’s work in this regard has been well-documented, this paper will demonstrate the crucial roles of other activists, including Martha Baer, Sidonie Werner, Isabella Heim, and Dora Edinger.