We Refugees: a trail on seeking refuge in the ancient world

Hannah Arendt’s essay –We Refugees – was published in 1943, after she and her family escaped to New York following the Nazi occupation of France. Arendt details the personal trauma of exile and forced migration and reads the refugee as a product of the limitations of the nation state. However, the exile, theémigré, the refugee, has a history much older than any particular mode of political organisation.

This trail, available during a special Saturday opening, traces one part of this history by looking back to Greece and Rome. It draws connections between the experience of the ancient refuge seeker and Arendt’s experience in twentieth century Europe, showing how these worlds are, in some ways, fundamentally different, and, in others, hauntingly similar.

This trail was originally part of the Cambridge Refugee Arts Festival.

Black and white image of Hannah Arendt, seated and wearing a suit

Hannah Arendt in 1958.
Barbara Niggl Radloff, Hannah Arendt at the first Kulturkritikerkongress, 1958, gelatin silver print, 30.3cm x 23.8cm, Stadtmuseum, Munich: Sammlung Fotografie, Barbara Niggl Radloff Archive.CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.