Hitler's Exiles; Personal Stories of the Flight from Nazi Germany to America

New York: The New Press, 1998. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xiv, 354 pages. Chronology of Events. Footnotes. Bibliography. Mark M. Anderson, a professor of German at Columbia University. Between 1933 and 1945, roughly 130,000 German-speaking refugees fled Hitler's persecution to resettle in America. This book is a composite first-hand account of this historic migration, focusing on the ordinary people who took this extraordinary voyage. The book also includes reflections by famous intellectuals such as Hannah Arendt, Thomas Mann, and Bertolt Brecht, as well as a section on the life of exiles in Hollywood, the virtual German colony on the Pacific. Derived from a Kirkus review: Anderson has gathered over three dozen distinct personal stories and musings on the plight of German-speaking exiles from Hitler’s tyranny. Despite the diverse circumstances and personalities presented, certain themes emerge. These included disbelief among Germany’s Jews that Hitler’s reign could be more than a brief interlude and that any flight abroad would involve more than a short trip. And even after Jews were being denounced as scoundrels and vermin, many Jews still felt strong allegiance to Germany and found it difficult to leave their “beloved homeland.” The mounting enthusiasm, in fact, that many young people felt for Palestine was a cause for tension among parents and children in many German Jewish households. Once in America, Hitler’s exiles felt forced to forget the past so that they could master an uncertain future. With this unwillingness to confront their recent trauma came a multitude of psychological and emotional issues that impacted the next generation. Condition: Very good / Very good.

Keywords: Refugees, Nazi Germany, Emigration and Immigration, Exiles, Peter Gay, Stefan Zweig, Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht

ISBN: 1565843900

[Book #78858]

Price: $45.00

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