Caribbean Archipelagic Memories: Entangled Jewish Dominican histories on Kiskeya-Hispaniola

During World War II, the Caribbean islands were one of the few places of refuge for Jews fleeing the Nazi regime. Many intended the Caribbean to be a short stopover; however, Jewish refugees started a new life and established self-sufficient communities whose Jewishness was entangled with the histories and memories of the islands. This article examines Sosúa through the lens of archipelagic memory, here operationalised in two interrelated ways as mobility and mnemonic currents. Drawing on interviews, go-alongs and archival research conducted between 2020 and 2022, this article investigates how these experiences are remembered through an archipelagic memory defined here as both the movements of people, goods, and ideas across the islands, and the circulation of narrative connections and shared cultural repertoires that link past and present. Focusing in second- to fourth-generation descendants, I trace how memories of the Shoah, colonialism, slavery, Trujillismo, and anti-Haitianism intersect in ways that reveal both solidarities and silences. The analysis shows that Kiskeya-Hispaniola, as a shared yet divided island, becomes an ‘intra-archipelagic’ space where selective remembering shapes notions of Dominicannness, Jewishness, and belonging. By bringing these entangled histories into dialogue, the article highlights the potential of archipelagic memory to foster differentiated solidarities that acknowledge connection without eliminating difference. By following both movements and mnemonic flows, this study contributes to a broader understanding of how Caribbean histories are made, remade, and selectively remembered across archipelagic networks.