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Marje Schuetze-Coburn Feuchtwanger's Relocation To

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Marje Schuetze-Coburn Feuchtwanger's Relocation To Marje Schuetze-Coburn Feuchtwanger’s Relocation to Southern California: Frustrations & Successes This paper explores the emotional, political, and economic challenges that Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger encountered during their emigration in the early 1940s from war-torn Europe to Southern California. During their first three years in Los Angeles, the Feuchtwangers’ resources dwindled while Lion Feuchtwanger struggled as a foreigner to find literary topics relevant to Americans. The trials and successes of this tumultuous period ultimately paved the way to financial stability and great public acclaim during Lion Feuchtwanger’s final years. Introduction Before Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger abandoned Europe for America, they experienced tremendous anxiety, frustration, and physical suffering at the hands of the French government. Their flight from France and Portugal removed the imminent danger of deportation they faced, but leaving Europe did not relieve them of emotional and financial hardship. This paper will review and explore the Feuchtwangers’ economic and personal difficulties, as well as their small triumphs, during this transitional period. Lion Feuchtwanger’s personal papers and correspondence in the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, much of which remains unpublished, provide rich insights to his experiences and impressions of life in the U.S. during his first few years in Southern California. Lion Feuchtwanger arrived in New York on 5 October 1940 aboard the American Export liner SS Excalibur. His arrival and dramatic escape from France made news in the New York Times edition of 6 October with the headline: ‘Flight described by Feuchtwanger.’ In this article Feuchtwanger gratefully acknowledged the support he had received throughout his harrowing escape from various American ‘friends’, whose identity he kept closely guarded so as not to endanger further rescue work in France.1 Despite this, the news report mentioned that Waitstill Sharp, a Unitarian from Boston, accompanied Feuchtwanger across the Atlantic; according to the reporter, Sharp played some unspecified role in saving Feuchtwanger. The following week, the New York Times covered the arrival of additional German refugees on the Greek liner Nea Hellas, focusing on Franz Werfel, and Golo and Heinrich Mann. This ship also carried Hermann Budzislawski, Alfred Polgar, and Marta Feuchtwanger to safety. The Times article of 14 October 1940 reported that Dr. Frank Kingdon, chairman of the Emergency Rescue Committee, greeted these writers upon their arrival, mentioning the role played by the ERC in the rescue operation. 2 Neither of these two Times articles provided specific details, although Feuchtwanger had described his ‘kidnap- ping’ from the bathing hole of the internment camp and his hike over the Pyrenees. Nonetheless, a month later, on 11 November 1940, Time magazine 102 Marje Schuetze-Coburn critically attacked Feuchtwanger for his careless comments to the press, which the reporter claimed had seriously impacted rescue efforts.3 The Time article continued that the Emergency Rescue Committee resented Feuchtwanger’s press briefing and alluded to a bidding war between the ERC and the Exiled Writers Committee over the cost of their fundraiser dinners, trivializing the grave danger and expenses required to save those still trapped in Nazi-occupied Europe. In Feuchtwanger’s defense, Franklin Folsom, National Executive Sec- retary for the League of American Writers, berated the Time Literary Editor for the politicized and sarcastic tone of the article.4 Many scholars have puzzled as to why Lion Feuchtwanger provided any details outlining his rescue to reporters upon his arrival. In a letter Feucht- wanger wrote to Frank Kingdon on 26 November 1940 he explained that he had understood the Emergency Rescue Committee to be a delegation of the Unitarian Church, not a separate entity. Feuchtwanger continued that he ‘gave statements to the press which the Unitarians judged to be useful’ because he had incorrectly believed the Unitarians were solely responsible for his escape. He expressed his surprise and concern that his statements might have been considered harmful.5 Another letter to his close friend, Eva Herrmann, dated 24 November, provides a more intimate perspective on Feuchtwanger’s feelings about the affair. He explained to her that he had been ‘großartig gerechtfertigt’ since many Unitarians in separate interviews had provided the same information that he had. He continued that the Secretary of the Kingdon Committee had apologized to him personally. Nonetheless, he was disturbed about the Time article, which he described as an ‘ungewöhnlich gemeiner Artikel gegen mich’; and he worried that the ‘underground-Attacken gegen mich weitergehen’. 6 Feuchtwanger’s private comments to Herrmann underscore his frustration at the public misperception of his interview and the continued recycling of false accusations against him. Between 1941 and 1944, numerous issues plagued Feuchtwanger’s at- tempts to establish himself and resume a productive career. In addition to the controversy surrounding his first public statement, he experienced anxiety about friends still in Europe, financial instability, a fickle American reading public, a lack of adequate translators, and the impact of the war and restrictions imposed on enemy aliens. Friends still in Europe As soon as he left Europe, Feuchtwanger began writing letters to support the rescue of friends still in danger. Over the years he gave thousands of dollars to further this cause and to help those without sufficient resources. Feuchtwanger long hoped that his former secretary, Lola Sernau, would be granted permission to come to the United States. He worked diligently to prepare the necessary paperwork and continued to send her money, but, unfortunately, his multi-year efforts to secure her entry to the U.S. ultimately failed. Separation from his .
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