The First Arrivals

The First Guests arrive at Scattergood

There was a common stereotype of the "typical refugee": someone of Jewish heritage and lower social class who would compete for work while America was still in the Great Depression. The first arrivals at Scattergood shattered these beliefs. Out of the first five guests, only one was Jewish. The others fled Germany because of their leftist political stances. They fervently and publicly disagreed with the Nazi political agenda.

Some of the initial guests were middle-class artisans or shop owners, such as goldsmiths and stationers. Others were academics. Fred "Kurt" Schaefer (pictured 2nd from the right), would become an inaugural member of the University of Iowa's Geography Department as a ground-breaking scholar in the field of quantitative geography.