arts in exile

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  The ceasefire is signed in a parlor car in the Forest of Compiègne, where the German generals agreed to end the fighting in 1918.

  Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1982-089-18, photographer: not stated

  22 June 1940

  Ceasefire between France and the German Reich
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  Exit Visa (Sauf-Conduit) for Soma Morgenstern’s departure from France, issued in Marseille, 13 February 1941

  Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933-1945 der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek, estate of Soma Morgenstern, EB 96/242

  End of June 1940

  The Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) is established in New York by German and American intellectuals and scientists as an aid organisation for refugees. 
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  Book jacket of the first edition of Deutsche Hörer!, published in 1942 by th Bermann Fischer publishing house, Stockholm

  Antiquariat Dr. Haack, Leipzig, courtesy of Frido Mann, © S. Fischer Verlage, Frankfurt am Main

  Autumn 1940

  Thomas Mann uses the Deutsche Hörer! series of BBC broadcasts to express his critical view of the Nazis and appeal to the German people from exile.
  From 1940, the British radio broadcaster BBC transmits texts on long wave by Thomas Mann with the aim of turning the Germans against the Nazis. At first, a German employee reads Mann’s texts, but from 1941 the BBC records the addresses directly with Thomas Mann in California: “German listeners! Here speaks a German writer whose works and person have been ostracized by those in power in Germany, even though they deal with what is most German, Goethe for example, and can now only speak to foreign, free peoples in their language, while this language must remain silent and unknown to you.
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  Varian Fry with André Breton, André Masson and Breton’s wife Jacqueline (in front, right to left) in his office in Marseille in 1941, photographer unknown

  © imago

  September 1940

  Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich Mann, Franz Werfel and Alma Mahler-Werfel are able to emigrate to the US with the help of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee. 
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  Begging child in the Warsaw Ghetto (1941)

  Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-134-0782-14, photographer: Knobloch, Ludwig

  2 October 1940

  German occupation forces order a ghetto be established for Jews in Warsaw. 
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  Adolf Hitler, Galeazzo Ciano (Italian Foreign Minister) and Saburu Kurusu (Japanese Ambassador) sign the Tripartite Pact
  
  

  Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H25094, photographer: Hoffmann, Heinrich

  27 September 1940

  Tripartite Pact signed by the German Reich, the Kingdom of Italy and the Japanese Empire
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  Front cover of the first issue of Decision, which appeared in January 1941

  courtesy of Frido Mann, © Rowohlt Verlag GmbH

  January 1941

  The journal Decision. A Review of Free Culture appears in the USA under the leadership of Klaus Mann.
• 7 April 1941

  Brazil's immigration policy, already marked by anti-Semitism since 1937, now effectively bans the entry of all foreigners.
• 15 June 1941

  The exhibition Works by Refugee Artists and Their English Friends opens in London, organised by the Free League of Culture and the Artists International Association (AIA).
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  Propaganda poster justifying the German attack on the Soviet Union by blaming Bolsheviks and Jews

  Bundesarchiv, Plak 003-009-208, graphic designer: not stated

  22 June 1941

  German troops begin marching on the Soviet Union without a declaration of war.