Exile literature

How writers fared during the Nazi era

Dear Sir or Madam,
Do you know the feeling of no longer being safe at home? Having to leave behind everything you hold dear: friends, family, homeland? And you do all of this just to avoid dying? Do you know that? – Most of you will answer this question with "No" and that is just as well.
When one hears the topic of "flight" today, one thinks of those refugees who come to our country. Some people are annoyed by this, find it wrong to take them in here and do not consider that it was once quite different. There was a time when refugees did not come here; they fled from Germany. During the Second World War, everyone who did not fit the Nazis' concept with their opinion or religious affiliation had to flee, because otherwise they faced the concentration camp and death.
Authors are among the people who express criticism and opinion when they deem it appropriate. They do not shy away from criticism. No, they often even want people to think things through. But during the Second World War, they encountered not only criticism, but also the brutality and ruthlessness of the Nazis. So over 2,000 writers had to flee into exile because of their political views or religion. From 1933 to 1945, the era of so-called "exile literature" extended. We want to engage with this together today.
Bertolt Brecht is regarded as one of the most significant authors of that time. He fled Germany in 1933, had to accept the revocation of his German citizenship two years later, and had to flee within Europe wherever Hitler had not yet arrived. No place remained safe for long, none could replace "home". Thus he moved further and further away from his homeland piece by piece. Besides Brecht's name, there were 148 other writers and a total of 12,400 titles on the so-called "List of Harmful and Undesirable Literature". Why had these been banned? Mostly it was due to the political views of the writers, or simply because they were of Jewish descent. Just as it would presumably be extremely difficult for each and every one of you to leave everything behind, these writers experienced the same. But did they have a choice? No, unless one regards the concentration camp and death as an alternative. Exile literature is thus the literature of émigrés, of people in and after flight. It is thus presumably surprising to no one that loneliness and despair characterised the thoughts and texts of these writers at that time. They took everything from them, burned their books, stole their homeland and their words. The Nazis robbed people of their so-called cultural identity. Many writers took their own lives.

The author and communist Bertolt Brecht, whose flight I have already told you a little about, engaged with his situation, like all the other exiled writers, in poems and texts. Thus, in a non-rhyming poem from 1937 entitled "On the Designation of Emigrants", it states that one should actually say "the expelled" instead of "emigrants". Under the circumstances, it would be more appropriate, since these people did not leave voluntarily, for they were given no choice. They were banished and their home was taken from them. According to Brecht, the refugees tried, as best they could and for as long as they could, to remain as close as possible to their country and simply hoped that one day they would be allowed to return. Brecht writes in the poem of concentration camps and the – I quote – "shame that now stains our country". And yet he always held this deep hope in his heart that one day he would be allowed to return. At this time, Brecht was in Denmark and wrote many poems, which were often dedicated to the anti-fascist struggle. Ultimately, Brecht had to flee to the USA. In 1941 he wrote the poem "Sonnet of Emigration" there. In it, he writes about how he must come to terms with the situation and live with it. He was driven out. He had no choice but to try to cope with it. Somehow he would have to accept having lost his home.
Besides Brecht, many other authors have engaged with their fate in exile and on the run. Anna Seghers, for example, wrote a novel about her experience of flight called "Transit", which is set in the 1940s. At that time, the author was in France. In the novel, she wrote, among other things, about the emotional state of refugees in Marseille. According to Seghers, they were uncertain, did not know where to go, but absolutely did not want to stay there and hoped to leave the country soon. The greatest fear of these people was having to remain behind. They only wanted to "go", as Anna Seghers put it. They wanted to go as far away as possible. But can one blame these people? They had lost everything; they wanted to at least save their physical lives.
"The Hunted One" is a poem by author Else Lasker-Schüler from 1934. The lyrical self in it is she herself. She compares herself with the hunted one, yet in truth the two are one and the same person. The flight has changed the author so much that she no longer recognises herself. As if she were a different person.
Other authors have written about how flight changes people and that it will change them forever. They fled with little luggage, but the true weight burdened their inner self, their heart. They saw and endured and felt what would never let them go. Only to arrive somewhere one day where they could stay. And perhaps one day they would feel not only safe there, but also sheltered and at home. Perhaps.

Today people are no longer fleeing from Germany. Today they are fleeing from other countries and seeking safety in secure countries like Germany. And although today's generation no longer knows the past or even wishes to suppress it, it nonetheless happened. We are not responsible for what occurred back then. Yet we are very much responsible for what is happening now. Once, people like you and I were fleeing from Germany. Authors were only a small part of that, but their works remain as a reminder. People like you and I were taken in. Somewhere. Now other people find themselves in the same situation. They must leave their homeland behind to escape a cruel fate. In doing so, they had to leave much behind, including their dearest loved ones, and had much to endure. Perhaps you will consider that we are simply fortunate here at present, and things were quite different 80 years ago.
I am convinced: if one tries to see the world through the eyes of another, then one can understand it better. – So try it and form your own picture.

I thank you for your attention and wish you a further interesting and pleasant day!