Accounting document from Querido publishing house for Konrad Merz (1937)
The author Konrad Merz would have never existed if it were not for his exile. First, the name is a pseudonym, a cover for Kurt Lehmann, who would never have created Konrad Merz if he had not been persecuted by the Nazis.
Anna Seghers: Das siebte Kreuz [The Seventh Cross (1942)], first German edition, published in Mexico (1942)
Book production under adverse conditionsThe El Libro Libre publishing house, which published the first German-language edition of Anna Seghers’ novel Das siebte Kreuz, had been established in May 1942 by German writers and intellectuals who were in exile in Mexico.
Austrian identity card of Paul Celan (1947)
Flight from Soviet occupationAfter several failed attempts to flee Stalinist Romania, at the end of November 1947 the author Paul Celan managed to reach Vienna after crossing the Romanian-Hungarian border on foot. On the day of his arrival at the Rothschild refugee camp, he was issued with this identity card under his birth name Antschel.
Confirmation of the deportation of Oskar Pastior, 22 June 1965
In January 1945, Red Army soldiers deported the 17-year-old Oskar Pastior to the Soviet Union. Members of the German minority in Romania were held co-responsible for the Second World War and had to do forced labour.
Contract between Rowohlt Verlag and Mascha Kaléko (1934)
In preparation for publishing Little Reader for Grown-UpsFollowing the success of her first book The Lyrical Shorthand Pad, which appeared in January 1933 in the Berlin-based Rowohlt Verlag, the prestigious publisher was keen to secure the young poet Mascha Kaléko for future publications as well. For the follow-up Little Reader for the Grown-Ups, which went on sale in late 1934, she was able to negotiate markedly more favourable terms.
Hans Sahl: Diary entry from 15 April 1941
Hans Sahl, who had garnered attention in Berlin in 1925 with his striking film and theatre reviews, actually wanted to be an author. His diary, which he began when he was living in Prague, the first city he lived in during his exile, in the following years became a medium for stylistic experimentation.
Hans Sahl: Film outline for 1000 Dollar Belohnung! (1939)
In 1938 Hans Sahl wrote a film script entitled 1000 Dollar Belohnung! while in France. It was a romantic comedy with Cinderella elements - the heroine is trying to find the person who saved her life from a jacket left behind at the scene of an accident.
Hans Sahl: Letter to Ernst Lubitsch (15 March 1941)
Before he left Europe for the United States on 1 April, 1941, Hans Sahl worked for several months in Marseille for Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee. Visas and affidavits needed to be procured and money and the ship passages had to be organised.
Heinrich Mann: Brief to Lou Albert-Lasard dated 24 February 1934
In this short letter written on 24 February 1934, the author Heinrich Mann, who was living in exile in France at the time, congratulated painter Lou Albert-Lassard on a lithography of hers he particularly liked. He also informed her about where Lion Feuchtwanger was living in Paris.
Helga Michie: Concord, etching (1979)
Concord was the title given by Helga Michie for her etching depicting a pair of twins looking out of a house window. In view of her own family history and her strong connection to her twin sister, the author Ilse Aichinger, and their separation before the war, it is obvious that the picture is autobiographical in nature.
