ON THE RUN FROM HITLER: WHEN THE WRITERS LEFT EUROPE

June 1940: Hitler's Wehrmacht has defeated France. The Gestapo is searching for Heinrich Mann and Franz Werfel, Hannah Arendt, Lion Feuchtwanger and countless others who have found asylum in France since 1933. Meanwhile, the American Varian Fry arrives in Marseille to rescue as many of them as possible. Uwe Wittstock tells the stirring story of their escape at deadly risk.

It is the most dramatic year in German literary history: German troops invade France. In Nice, Heinrich Mann listens to the news on Radio London while the bomb alarm sounds. Anna Seghers flees Paris on foot with her children. And Lion Feuchtwanger is imprisoned in a French internment camp as the SS units close in. They all eventually end up in Marseille in search of a way to freedom. It is here that Walter Benjamin delivers his last essay to Hannah Arendt before setting off on his escape across the Pyrenees. This is where the paths of numerous German and Austrian writers, intellectuals and artists crossed. And it was here that Varian Fry and his comrades-in-arms risked life and limb to smuggle the persecuted out of the country. Many manage to escape, others don't make it, some give up and take their own lives out of fear. Uwe Wittstock tells the story of incredible courage and utter despair, of defiant hope and compassion in a gloomy and sensitive way.

humanity in dark times.

• "Dear Feuchtwanger, we need courage today. What percentage of hope do you give us?" "How much hope? Five percent."
• On the flight of Heinrich Mann, Anna Seghers, Franz Werfel, Hannah Arendt, Lion Feuchtwanger, Walter Benjamin and many others
• A densely staged chronicle of courage, despair and humanity
• Marseille 1940: where the paths of numerous writers and intellectuals crossed

Uwe Wittstock is a writer and journalist and was editor of Focus until 2018. He previously worked as a literary editor for the FAZ, as an editor at S. Fischer and as deputy features editor and cultural correspondent for Die Welt. He was awarded the Theodor Wolff Prize for Journalism. His bestseller "February 33: The Winter of Literature" (6th edition 2021) was published by C.H.Beck and has been translated into nine languages.

Moderation: Marietta Thien

Time: 7 p.m., 6 p.m. Admission
Cost: €12 adults, €6 reduced
Venue: Weilerswist-Metternich, Kultuhof Velbrück e.V., Meckenheimer Str. 47

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