Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged Podcast.

From the 1880s to World War I, 10 million immigrants sailed across the Atlantic from Europe

to America.

One quarter of these were Russian and Central European Jews fleeing discrimination and violence from their homelands.

Many of them sailed on steamships from Hamburg, Germany.

This mass exodus didn't happen by accident, but it was facilitated

by three businessmen, Jacob Schiff, the managing partner of the American Investment Bank,

Coon, Loeb, and company, who used his wealth, helped use leave Europe, Albert Baylin, the German managing

director of the Hamburg-American Line, who created a transportation network of trains and

steamships to carry them across continents and an ocean, and J.P. Morgan, mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine Trust

who tried to monopolize lucrative steamship business. The goals of these three men were

contradictory but together they made possible a migration that spared

reelings from persecution and death. Today's guest is Stephen Ujifusa,

author of The Last Ships from Hamburg.

Business, rivalry, and the race to save Russia's Jews on the eve of World War I.

His great grandparents were part of this immigrant

group and he describes how they moved from the Stettles of Russia and the ports of Hamburg

to the mansions of New York's Upper East Side. We explore how debates on immigration

of change from the 1880s to today and what it takes for the interests of billionaires and the interests of society's poorest members to a lot.

Hope you enjoyed this discussion with Stephen Ujifusa.

And one more thing before we get started with this episode a quick break for word from our sponsors.

You know in the beginning of your book that between 1881 and 1914, 10 million people

...