After the exodus of German writers in the spring of 1933, the Dutch publisher Emanuel Querido founded a German speaking division for authors persecuted and banned in Germany. The co-owner and head of this department was Fritz H. Landshoff who had been the director of the Kiepenheuer publishing house in Berlin until 1933, one of the most programmatically advanced publishing houses of the Weimar Republic. Due to Landshoff's excellent contacts and editorial skill, the Querido Verlag quickly became the main exile publishing house in the years 1933 to 1940.

Within a few weeks it had signed contracts with the authors Heinrich Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger, Arnold Zweig, Alfred Döblin, Joseph Roth, Emil Ludwig and Ernst Toller, whose publications shaped the programme of the press over the following years. Added to this was Klaus Mann's militant literary, cultural and political magazine Die Sammlung (The Collection), the first issue of which had already appeared in September 1933. Despite difficult conditions for German titles in the foreign market, Querido Verlag published a total of 124 German language books.

The publishing company was dissolved in May 1940 after the German invasion of the Netherlands. Fritz H. Landshoff emigrated to the United States in 1941 where he founded a new publishing house with the publisher Gottfried Bermann-Fischer. Emanuel Querido was deported to Sobibor and murdered in 1943. Landshoff attempted to revive the Querido Verlag in the years 1946-1949 but failed due to financial and bureaucratic obstacles. 

Further reading:
Landshoff, Fritz H.: Amsterdam, Keizersgracht 333. Querido Verlag. Erinnerungen eines Verlegers. Mit Briefen und Dokumenten. Berlin und Weimar: Aufbau Verlag 1991
Walter, Hans-Albert: Fritz H. Landshoff und der Querido Verlag 1933-1950. Marbach: Deutsche Schillergesellschaft 1997