“We work for the future of the countries affected and in some ways, sorry to be grandiose, for the future of the world,” said Stephen Wordsworth, executive director of the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA).

Of the 2,000 academics who were helped to escape the Nazi regime and continue their work abroad, 16 went on to win Nobel prizes.

Currently, the foundation supports 140 academics and their families through their affiliation with over 100 British universities and several institutions in Australia, Canada, France and Germany, many of whom intend to return to their countries of origin once it is safe.

“Without them, it will be pretty difficult to rebuild these countries, without the ability to train lawyers, doctors, architects,” Wordsworth said.

They aim to convince universities to waive their fees for the academics, and then supports their housing and living costs.

Nadia Faydh, 37, holds a PhD in English and American poetry from the University of Baghdad and was teaching at Al-Mustansiriya University in the Iraqi capital when she encountered intimidation by Shiite militias.

“They know how to hurt people. My major concern is my family. I don’t want to put my family in danger. I can’t change myself, I will always speak my mind so the only option was to leave,” Faydh says. Afterwards, CARA helped Faydh secure a position as a research associate at King’s College London.

About 450 academics have been deliberately targeted and murdered in Iraq since 2003, according to Wordsworth.

Muhammad and his wife Joury, both teachers at a university in Damascus, found themselves under scrutiny by both religious extremists who suspected them of being faithful to President Bashar Al-Assad and by regime loyalists, were able to go to Glasgow to continue their studies.

CARA, which has an annual budget of £700,000 ($1 million, 900,000 euros), receives three to five new requests for help each week, three-quarters of them from Syria. The requests are increasingly hard to meet, as the foundation’s funds are already allocated.

Individual donations increased with media coverage of the beheading of the famed Syrian archeologist Khaled al-Asaad, who was the chief of antiquities in the ancient site of Palmyra for 50 years.