Mexican ID card of Bodo Uhse (1940)
Mexican ID card of Bodo Uhse (1940)
Für mich ist es ein merkwürdig anheimelndes Gefühl, vom geschichtslosen Boden dieses Landes nun wieder in ein Land mit alter Kultur zu kommen, in ein Land, in dem es Zeugnisse großer Vergangenheit gibt. Wahrhaftig, mir ist, als träte ich wieder in eine Familie ein.
[It gives me a strange feeling of home to go from the history-free soil of this country back to a land with an ancient culture. To a country where there is evidence of a great past. Truly, I feel as if I am rejoining a family. (ed. trans.)]
Diary entry, Bodo Uhse, from 5 February 1940
Bodo Uhse arrived in Mexico on 20 March 1940. With the assistance of Ludwig Renn, he was finally granted a visa as a political refugee by the Mexican Consulate following a long wait. His residence permit for the United States had expired in early February but bureaucratic and political wrangles delayed the issue of the entry permit for Mexico. On March 5 Uhse noted in his diary: "Yesterday I received a letter from Ludwig. The Mexican government has stopped issuing all visas for emigrants for two months. [...] I have no idea what I should now do. My residence permit here has long expired. The authorities could deport me and lock me up. "(Bodo Uhse, Reise- und Tagebücher, 1981)
The residence permit issued on 16 April 1940 for the unmarried writer of "indeterminate" nationality was initially for one year. The residence permit was extended by the relevant registration authority for another year in June 1941, as indicated on the back of the document.
Uhse was to remain in Mexico until the summer of 1948 where he was active in the Liga pro Cultura Alemana and strove to arrange visas and ocean crossings for endangered German antifascists in France.
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