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Introduction
Introduction
This project focuses on those immigrants who left Europe between the years 1930 and 1945 as a result of Hitler’s rise to power and the accompanying increase in state-sanctioned antisemitism and fascism across the continent. While many of them made stops along the way, they all settled in sunny Southern California, where they formed their own émigré community. So many of them immigrated, in fact, that it was “as if the cafés of Berlin, Munich, and Vienna had disgorged their clientele onto Sunset Boulevard” (Ross). While all of “America was a haven from the turmoil,” Los Angeles, and Santa Monica in particular, were especially attractive to the artists thanks to the Mediterranean climate, the Golden Age of Hollywood, and an established social and financial support system. With Europe descending into further chaos by the day and these key foundations waiting on the other side of the Atlantic, these émigrés were eager to flee to build “a new existence under the palm trees in the California sunshine” (Herak 21).
This project aims to analyze their stories in critical detail, to answer the following research questions:
What kind of patterns are there in paths émigrés took to Los Angeles? Why may these patterns exist?
What was the relationship between people who traveled throughout similar cities?
After the war, why were some émigrés more compelled to return to Europe than others?
Travel Patterns
There are many common obstacles throughout these narratives, as explained by Herak:
Many of them had spent the years 1933-39 “in der Wandërschaft.” First to Switzerland where life was expensive, and refugees from Germany without funds were not admitted except on transit visas. So they pushed on to Austria, where semitic names on film credits were not welcomed… Later in France and England no work permit was given without a residence permit, and no residence permit was approved without a work permit… When France fell in 1940, there was only one hope left for those lucky enough not to be locked up in a French internment camp: to get to America… (Herak 21)
According to Herak, many exiles were pushed into Switzerland, Austria, France, England, or Spain before making their necessary move to the United States. Additionally, several emigres, such as Konrad Kellen, Max Horkheimer, and Sergej Rachmaninow, resided in New York or in the Northeastern United States before making their way to Los Angeles. As highlighted by our visualizations, it took emigrés an average of 2.39 stops to reach Los Angeles from their starting point. Out of the total 86 stops for the 36 individuals accounted for in our dataset, only 4 stops went eastbound while the rest went west. Berlin was the most popular starting point, containing 15 out of 36 emigrés from our dataset. The most popular second stop was Paris, and other popular areas and cities included Vienna, Southern France, and London before reaching Los Angeles.
Relationships Across Cities
Lion Feuchtwanger and Fellow Exiles' Journey to Spain
Lion Feuchtwanger’s journey is particularly relevant to understanding relationships between people who traveled throughout similar cities. A Jewish-German author, he faced increasingly violent threats from his government throughout the 1930s (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). This forced him and his wife to arrange an elaborate escape in 1933 to Sanary-sur-mer in the south of France -- a popular region for refugees prior to its invasion by Hitler due in part to its temperate climate. More significantly, though, “few of them believed that Hitler’s reign would last long, and a trip across the ocean seemed excessive” (Ross). However, by 1940, France had fallen to the Nazis and those politically and socially targeted by the Nazis realized that more dramatic distance was necessary. That September, organizing a group including prominent friends and colleagues Franz Werfel, Alma Mahler, Heinrich Mann, Nelly Mann (a couple who had previously fled to Paris prior to its occupation), and Thomas Mann’s son Golo, they hiked across the Pyrenees Mountains to reach Spain without encountering French border officials (University of Pennsylvania). Werfel, Mahler, and Feuchtwanger were all Jewish.
Stops in the Northeastern United States
New York and its surrounding areas in the Northeastern United States were highly attractive for professional opportunities. Particularly, Thomas Mann and his wife spent several years in Princeton, New Jersey where he obtained a job as a professor at Princeton University (Meyers). Igor Stravinsky, a Russian composer, taught at Harvard from 1938-1941 (Biography.com Editors). Sergej Rachmaninow, another Russian composer, found his home in Philadelphia, where he worked closely with the Philadelphia Orchestra for several years (McCarthy).
New York was an obvious destination for geographic reasons, but the city was attractive also for its resources. For example, the journalist Varian Fry, who had helped the group across the Pyrenees, was working on behalf of the New-York-based Emergency Rescue Committee, which worked to “facilitate the extraction of writers and other artists, often by extralegal means” (Ross). Upon their arrival to New York from Portugal, the group split up. The Manns immediately left for Los Angeles. Feuchtwanger and his wife spent a short time in New York before leaving for Southern California in 1941 (United States Holocaust Museum). In the same year, Werfel and Mahler were forced to travel to Mexico in order to re-enter the United States as immigrants, and by 1942 lived in Beverly Hills (University of Pennsylvania). Part of the draw to Southern California can be explained by the existence of the émigré-founded European Film Committee (Herak 21). At the direction of German-American director Ernst Lubitsch and Czech-American talent agent Paul Kohner, the European Film Committee financially supported many emigrating artists. By assisting in negotiating film contracts and establishing a fund for their most impoverished collaborators, the Committee made it possible for them to obtain visas and travel to the United States (Herak 23). In fact, many of the émigrés’ contracts with film studios were motivated solely by the opportunity to obtain visas: because “their English was poor and their ideas had no hope of being produced,” it was a politically strategic move more than professionally-savvy (Ross).
Return to Europe
Seven out of thirty-six individuals from our dataset eventually returned to Europe. Six of the seven were originally from Germany, with the last individual being from Austria-Hungary. By observing when and where they went after leaving the United States, we sought to better understand what compelled some émigrés to return to Europe.
Originally from Germany
William Dieterle was an actor and film director, who arrived in the United States in 1930 to leave Germany's worsening political situation. In Hollywood, he worked as a director for most of his career and became a U.S. citizen in 1937. After making numerous Hollywood films, including some film noir, he eventually moved back to Germany in the late 1950s where he made more films and eventually retired in 1965 (Barson).
Marlene Dietrich was a high-profile actress, singer, and entertainer who spent a great deal of her entertaining career in the United States throughout World War II. After the war, Dietrich was met with mixed emotions when she returned to Germany while traveling the world as a live-show performer from the 1950s to the 1970s. Her return to West Germany in 1960 was received somewhat poorly, with many Germans expressing disdain toward Dietrich for allegedly betraying her homeland. However, she received warm welcomes from other Germans who also opposed the Nazis and lived in exile (Rodriguez).
Thomas Mann lived in Los Angeles until July 1952. Due to disappointment with American post-war politics and McCarthyism, Mann settled near Zürich, Switzerland, where he and his family lived in exile between 1933 and 1938. After World War II, he visited East Germany and West Germany multiple times and received many public honors; however, he refused to return to live in Germany (Meyers).
Otto Klemperer left Germany soon after the Nazi Party gained power in 1933, first stopping in Austria, then Switzerland, and eventually California, being appointed as music director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In the early 1950s, he began to experience difficulties with recording in Europe due to American union policies, and his left-wing views caused issues with the State Department and FBI. In 1952, the US declined the renewal of Klemperer's passport, and so he returned to Europe and acquired a German passport in 1954 (Brewer).
Robert Siodmak was a film director who arrived in Los Angeles in 1939, where he made over twenty films, many of which are regarded as film noir classics. Siodmak left to return to Europe in 1953 after his production of The Crimson Pirate (1952). In 1955, he returned to West Germany and made several other films, yet they were not as successful as his films produced in America (Justice et al.).
Theodor W. Adorno was a philosopher, musicologist, and composer who arrived in LA in 1939. Ten years later, in 1949, Adorno returned to Europe, where he contributed to the intellectual foundations and the political culture of West Germany. In Germany, he was a Frankfurt University professor, philosophy critic, and music teacher (Schuetze-Coburn).
Originally from Austria-Hungary
Hanns Eisler was a composer who managed to emigrate to the U.S. with a permanent visa. In 1942, he moved to Los Angeles, where he scored numerous films and collaborated artistically with playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht. Though his career in the U.S. seemed promising, the Cold War affected his career, as he was one of the first artists placed on the Hollywood blacklist. Despite support from friends such as actor Charlie Chaplin and composer Igor Stravinsky, Eisler was deported to Prague in early 1948, along with his wife. Before leaving, he read the following:
I leave this country not without bitterness and infuriation. I could well understand it when in 1933 the Hitler bandits put a price on my head and drove me out. They were the evil of the period; I was proud at being driven out. But I feel heartbroken over being driven out of this beautiful country in this ridiculous way.
Eisler returned to his home country of Austria and later moved to East Berlin. While in East Germany, he composed their national anthem, for which he is now well-remembered (Schuetze-Coburn).
Summary
Based on what we know about each of these individuals and their eventual returns to Europe, and despite the migration patterns noted in our visualizations, each émigré had his or her own journey in leaving Los Angeles. While some individuals felt pulled back to Europe to carry out their professional careers, others were pushed out due to sociopolitical reasons. That said, some exiles were, in fact, not compelled to return to Europe; rather, some returned against their will. Additionally, although World War II ended in 1945, the earliest year that any exile returned to Europe was 1948, and this was Hanns Eisler who was deported from the United States. Similarly, Otto Klemperer's U.S. passport was not removed, and so he had to return to Germany.
Of course, returning to Europe directly after the war was not desirable for some time due to the tense sociopolitical climate. However, the door was open for individuals such as Theodor W. Adorno and Hanns Eisler to make their mark on the political cultures of West Germany and East Germany. Filmmakers and performers such as William Dieterle, Robert Siodmak, and Marlene Dietrich found their way back to Europe, where they carried out more of or finished their careers. Notably, Thomas Mann was one of the only individuals listed from the group above who did not eventually return to Germany for living purposes.
William Dieterle
Marlene Dietrich
Thomas Mann
Robert Siodmak
Otto Klemperer
Theodor W. Adorno
Hanns Eisler
Conclusion
In conclusion, our data collection, visualizations, and analyses have pointed to some important movement patterns that reflect what was going on during World War II for many relevant, impactful individuals from the early-to-mid 1900s. Our narrative reveals more information about the role of politics and relationships in geographical movements. Utilizing mapping features supported by ArcGIS and Tableau, we were able to visualize and, thereby, better contextualize our dataset. Looking at this group of émigrés gave us greater insight into any migration patterns to Los Angeles, notably with nearly all émigrés moving West for their first stop on their way to LA and several émigrés stopping in the Northeastern United States for professional opportunities or geographical reasons. Additionally, we were able to observe relationships with various exiles who traveled along similar paths or collaborated with one another on professional projects. Finally, we took into account which exiles returned to Europe, gaining insight into individual exiles' experiences in the United States before being pushed or drawn out to Europe. Through this project, we hope to raise further questions about additional demographics or variables that played a role in the paths that different individuals took, as well as the lasting impacts that many of these individuals had on both American and European culture from the 1930s through the 1950s.
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