The authors Arnold Zweig and Lion Feuchtwanger maintained a close friendship from the early 1920s onwards. After relocating to the southern-French locality of Sanary-sur-Mer in March of 1933, Feuchtwanger offered his friend Zweig the opportunity to join him in the coastal community. Zweig had also fled Berlin the same month and eventually arrived in Sanary after a journey that took him through Prague, Vienna and Basel. He and his wife were welcomed by Feuchtwanger upon their arrival at the local train station in June 1933. One month later, the Zweigs moved into an apartment in the small fishing village, thus following in the footsteps of many German artists of the era. The relationships between Feuchtwanger, Zweig and Bertolt Brecht became particularly close, as the three socialized regularly. Feuchtwanger and Zweig continued to work on their literature and indeed it was in Sanary-sur-Mer that Zweig dictated the manuscript for his book Bilanz der deutschen Judenheit.

While residing in southern France, Feuchtwanger himself wrote, among other works, the novels Die Geschwister Oppermann (The Oppermanns) and Exil (Exile) - the third part of his Wartesaal trilogy. All these works were published by the Amsterdam house Querido Verlag, as was the aforementioned book by Zweig.

Ultimately the French Riviera remained an interim post for both writers: Arnold Zweig emigrated to Palestine in 1933, while Feuchtwanger opted to relocate to the USA in 1940 after a spell in the French internment camp Les Milles.