Letters from exile: what distinguishes them from those written at home or on holiday?

With regard to the envelopes, there are changing addresses, letters are sent poste restante to hotels or dummy addresses, to prisons or internment camps. The paper itself sheds light on the situation of the person writing: it often carries a letterheads from a small and low-cost hotel or is thin airmail paper. And the writing is kept small to save space and postage costs. Even seemingly trivial aspects, such as the use of rough notepaper and substitute materials, letter and censorship stamps or the intervals between two letters, take on importance in the light of exile and tell their own stories.

The topics which are addressed range from secular, religious, and political prospects through to the problems of exile such as violence, escape or captivity. And not infrequently the writers express their wish for an end to it all.

Together, the individual stories and very private messages contained in the letters create a distinct image of what it is like to be an artist in exile. Regular correspondence became a major source of solace for many of the letter-writers and their recipients, especially since letters were often the only way of making both private or professional contact. And amidst all the correspondence are the most personal testimonial of this period: begging letters. Written out of hopelessness - to people they hoped could help.

Further Reading:
Heike Klapdor (Hg.), Ich bin ein unheilbarer Europäer, Briefe aus dem Exil, Berlin 2007. 

Hiltrud Häntzschel / Sylvia Asmus / Germaine Goetzinger / Inge Hansen-Schaberg (Hg.), Auf unsicherem Terrain, Briefeschreiben im Exil, München 2013.