The role of gardens and parks in the life of the Jewish population under National Socialism in Germany and Fascism in Italy has been a hitherto totally neglected field of research in, e. g., literary studies as well as in the field of landscape architecture. The paper discusses how gardens served, at least temporarily, for many Jewish people as places of refuge in an increasingly hostile environment. Particular attention is dedicated to the role of allotment gardens as places of resistance, asylum, and concealment. A second chapter deals with the role of gardens and parks as places of separation and stigmatisation and elucidates the instrumentalisation of public open spaces for separation and discrimination.