In 1933, thousands of intellectuals, artists, writers, militants and other opponents of the Nazi regime fled Germany. Including such figures as Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht and Heinrich Mann they were "the best of Germany," refusing to remain citizens in this new state that legalized terror and brutality. They emigrated all across the globe, to Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Oslo, Vienna, New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Mexico, Jerusalem, Moscow. Often distrusted as Germans in the countries they arrived in, they struggled to survive - and some committed suicide in despair. But throughout their exile they strove to give expression to the fight against Nazism through their work, in prose, poetry and painting, architecture, film and theater. Weimar in Exile follows these lives, from the rise of national socialism to the return to their ruined homeland, retracing their stories, struggles, setbacks and rare victories. In this absorbing and magisterial work Jean-Michel Palmier provides a compelling and detailed history of those whose dignity in exile is a moving counterpoint top the story of Germany under the Nazis.
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