Marseille 1940
The Flight of Literature
1. Edition May 2025
336 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
June 1940: France surrenders to Germany. The Gestapo is searching for Heinrich Mann and Franz Werfel, Hannah Arendt, Lion Feuchtwanger and many other writers and artists who had sought asylum in France since 1933. The young American journalist Varian Fry arrives in Marseille with the aim of rescuing as many as possible. This is the harrowing story of their flight from the Nazis under the most dangerous and threatening circumstances.
It is the most dramatic year in German literary history. In Nice, Heinrich Mann listens to the news on Radio London as air-raid sirens wail in the background. Anna Seghers flees Paris on foot with her children. Lion Feuchtwanger is trapped in a French internment camp as the SS units close in. They all end up in Marseille, which they see as a last gateway to freedom. This is where Walter Benjamin writes his final essay to Hannah Arendt before setting off to escape across the Pyrenees. This is where the paths of countless German and Austrian writers, intellectuals and artists cross. And this too is where Varian Fry and his comrades risk life and limb to smuggle those in danger out of the country. This intensely compelling book lays bare the unthinkable courage and utter despair, as well as the hope and human companionship, which surged in the liminal space of Marseille during the darkest days of the twentieth century.
Backstories
Two Days in July 1935
Le Désastre
May 1940
June 1940
July 1940
Over the Mountains
August 1940
September 1940
October 1940
The Villa, Waiting, and Death
November 1940 to February 1941
Spring in France
February to June 1941
The Long Goodbye
June to November 1941
What Happened Afterward
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Bibliography
--Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader
"Uwe Wittstock's Marseille 1940 reads like a novel, but tells a tale that is all too true. Narrated in the present tense and with a vivid cast of characters - at the centre of which is the obstinate, admirable Varian Fry - it rescues the rescuers, highlighting the crucial role that a small group of culture-lovers played in helping Jewish intellectuals and artists flee Germany. A compelling account of one of the most dramatic periods in the history of European culture."
--Ben Hutchinson, University of Kent
"A harrowing account of anti-Nazi writers' and artists' efforts to escape France after its 1940 defeat ... Wittstock tells an irresistible story."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"... as addictive as it is nerve-racking ... a story well worth retelling."
--Magdalena Miecznicka, Financial Times
"What makes Wittstock's lively book both topical and depressing is how little things have changed. Today, refugees, driven to flee through persecution, racism and fear of death, are treated with the same lack of international generosity as in Fry's time."
Literary Review
'What makes Wittstock's lively book both topical and depressing is how little things have changed. Today, refugees, driven to flee through persecution, racism and fear of death, are treated with the same lack of international generosity as in Fry's time.'
Literary Review
