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The enormous refugee crisis bequeathed by the cumulative events of the "Arab Spring", the ongoing Syrian Civil War and the multiple collapses of civil authority across parts of Africa and the Middle East over the last decade challenges us, as professional historians of Germany and as politically sentient citizens, to respond. This Virtual Special Issue of German History, which focuses on some of the refugee and migration histories of the most recent German past, is animated by the belief that such a sense of powerlessness, while understandable, is misplaced. Above all, by foregrounding papers that focus on the humanity of historical refugees and migrants we are asserting that History, as a discipline, has a valuable role to play in reminding us of the obligations that come with our own. [Extracted from the article]