by George Stevens Jr.
An inside look at how Hollywood worked in the 1940s, and the ways in which it coincided with the war and informed the vision of various directors and writers of the era.
Crossing Over
by Ruth Wolman
Interviews with Jewish couples who settled in Los Angeles after emigrating from Germany and Austria to escape the Nazi terror.
The Devil in France: My Encounter With Him in the Summer of 1940
by Lion Feuchtwanger
A first-person account of German Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger’s experiences of internment in France, followed by his ultimate escape from the Nazis. Useful description of the camp’s conditions, the types of people who were imprisoned by the French government at the beginning of the war, and how this work camp foreshadowed the horrors to come.
Exiled in Paradise: German Refugee Artists and Intellectuals in America from the 1930s to the Present
by Anthony Heilbut
A central work of scholarship on German exile culture.
Five Came Back
by Mark Harris
A great source on how Hollywood changed as a result of the war, focusing on five key directors who all fought in the war: John Ford, George Stevens, Billy Wyler, John Huston, and Frank Capra.
Hitler’s Exiles
edited by Mark Anderson
A personal account of the war from various exiles from different countries, many of whom fled to Los Angeles to start new lives.
The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World
by George Prochnik
An account of the agonies and ecstasies of Stefan Zweig, one of Europe’s leading intellectuals, who was driven into exile along with many others of his milieu; but this book tracks his personal experience of exile, which ultimately ended in suicide.
The Kindness of Strangers
by Salka Viertel
A beautiful memoir from a female perspective on the experience of exile in Los Angeles during and after the war.
The Long Road Home: The Aftermath of the Second World War
by Ben Shephard
A detailed look at life after the war; Shephard’s focus on repatriation of refugees, and the fate of Jewish DPs, as well as the process of searching for lost children, proved particularly helpful.
Los Angeles in World War II
by Ruth Wallach, Dace Taub, Claude Zachary, Linda McCann, and Curtis Roseman
Provided wonderful photographs and explanation of Los Angeles during wartime, from civilian experiences to how the city prepared and weathered the war.
The Mirador: Dreamed Memories of Irène Némirovsky by her Daughter
by Elisabeth Gille
A beautifully impressionistic account of French writer Irène Némirovsky’s life leading up to her deportation to Auschwitz in July of 1942.
Never Look Away
directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
A feature film that traces the path of a German artist from his childhood during WWII to the 1960s. A powerful depiction of intergenerational trauma and the inescapability of the past.
The New York Times Complete World War II 1939–1945: The Coverage from the Battlefields to the Home Front with Access to 98,367 Articles
edited by Richard Overy, foreword by Tom Brokaw
Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II
by Keith Lowe
Particularly helpful in explaining the state of Europe after the war, and how Jews were viewed in its direct aftermath, before the terms “Holocaust” and “survivor” became commonplace.
Shadows of a Childhood
by Elisabeth Gille
This novel traces the wartime experiences of Elisabeth Gille, Irène Némirovsky’s daughter, who was hidden and survived the war, and only later discovered the circumstances of her mother’s death.
Southern California: An Island on the Land
by Carey McWilliams
A historical account of California, written in 1946, covering all aspects of the state, from the topography and climate to personalities such as cult leader Aimee Semple McPherson and why people from all over the US came looking for a new life in California.
Suite Francaise
by Irène Némirovsky
A beautifully written novel composed during the German occupation of France, told from various points of view.
A Third Face
by Sam Fuller
An autobiography by writer/director Sam Fuller, who fought in the unit the Big Red One during World War II and lived to tell about it afterward, including his experiences as a director and writer in Hollywood in the 1940s and ’50s.
The War: A Memoir
by Marguerite Duras
Written in 1945, this memoir describes Duras’s experiences living in Paris during the occupation, including her work for the Resistance and her dealings with a Gestapo officer who was attracted to her.
Weimar on the Pacific: German Exile Culture in Los Angeles and the Crisis of Modernism
by Ehrhard Bahr
The first book of its kind that examines this group of German exiles that escaped Nazi Germany to settle in Los Angeles in the ’30s and ’40s as a cultural phenomenon that affected the shaping of modernism in the face of National Socialism.
The Wine of Solitude
by Irène Némirovsky
An autobiographical novel based on Némirovsky’s childhood experiences growing up in prerevolutionary Russia.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my editor, Tara Singh Carlson, who read an earlier form of this book, and with her tremendous combination of faith and endurance, worked tirelessly to bring our vision to fruition. Her honest, meticulous notes and her determination to push me beyond what I thought possible in terms of the narrative and my own capabilities as a writer still astound me; I am forever grateful.
My gratitude also extends to: Ashley Di Dio, Helen O’Hare, Alexis Welby, Sally Kim, Anthony Ramondo, Vi-An Nguyen, Mary Beth Constant, and the rest of the team at G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
I am so grateful for my agent, Alice Tasman, for her generosity of spirit, sense of humor, and pluck to keep on going during this long journey. She is my greatest ally, and kept both of our heads above water. And thank you to the rest of the team at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency: Jean Naggar, Jennifer Weltz, Ariana Philips, Alicia Brooks, and Maddie Ticknor.
Thank you to Deb Garrison and Lexy Bloom for believing in and fighting for this book, too.
I am indebted to the USC Writing Program, USC Libraries, and the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, and especially to Michaela Wolf for her research assistance with exile studies, and to Sophie Lesinska.
Thank you to Deborah Netburn, my central point of gravity, for our wonderful friendship and your magic; Cecily Gallup, for her medical advice on gunshot wounds and her friendship; Sara Sandström, my north star in Sweden, for our long walks and talks; Anna Mattos and Carl Hampe, for weathering the storm with us and for our Bulgarian summer; Meghan Davis Mercer, for your insights and our breakfasts; Maya Varnell, for our ballet days and your humor; Laura Regan, for the friendship as we became mothers; and thank you so much to Stephen Kenneally for listening and lighting the way through the dark woods.
Natasha Gevorkyan, thank you for the music.
Thank you to Kaley Giles-Bruess for caring for my children.
Thank you to Rachel Artenian, Evan James, and Alma Santillan for so graciously sharing your office environment.
Thank you to my father, Joel Landau, for supporting me in all things, for the space to write, and the time.
Thank you to my mother, Arlene Landau, for your encouragement to keep writing, despite life’s turbulence.
My gratitude extends to the rest of my family: Brad TePaske, Susan Landau, Lauren Cadish, Patrick Griffin, Betty and Anders
Westgren, Pia and Birgitta Westgren, and the entire Westgren clan in Holland and Sweden.
Thank you to my children, Levi and Lucia, for understanding how long it takes to write a book and cheering me along the way.
This book is also for Anders Landau Westgren, wherever you are, we carry you in our hearts.
Last but absolutely not least, thank you to Philip for reading this book from its first beginning pages, the countless drafts in between, to this final rendition; I cherish your patience, love, and generosity—I cannot thank you enough.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexis Landau is a graduate of Vassar College and received an MFA from Emerson College and a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. She is the author of The Empire of the Senses and lives with her husband and two children in Los Angeles.
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