The Exiles

The Exiles records the living testimonies of a handful of these then-elderly survivors of Europe’s twentieth century genocide, many of whom have died since the film was made. They came chiefly to America and Britain in two waves: either during the years between World Wars I and II, or, in the second–and last–wave–until the early 1940s, when the Nazis and their sympathizers sealed the gates off the routes of escape forever to so many more.

The interviews freeze fleeting moments with some of the souls saved.The collective influence of those listed at the end of this review, both Jewish and non-Jewish (and those whose names were omitted) is inestimable.

By 1940, although some eight thousand European intellectuals had found refuge in America, thousands more were still trapped. The anti-immigrant, and anti-Jewish sentiment of the time is captured well in newsreel clippings: the red, contorted face of nativist demagogue Gerald L. K. Smith delivering an anti-foreigner speech. Political cartoons of the time shown are interesting documents: one famous cartoon shows Native Americans being confronted by two Pilgrims, with the caption, “You can’t come in. The quote for 1620 is full.”

America’s collective memory will be jarred by this film, as it is made clear the U.S. government’s position towards the exiles is similarly riddled with nativist sentiment. Eleanor Roosevelt positive initiatives are only given a cursory mention; through her efforts on behalf of Varian Fry, credited with saving at least 1,500 of the exiles, trapped in Vichy, France, is recounted through the words of Mary Jane Gold, identified only as an “American volunteer” in Fry’s underground rescue
group: “You felt it was the end of the world, and yet, it couldn’t have been. You had to hope for the best.”

America’s International Rescue Committee, formed in 1933, and spearheaded by Albert Einstein, gave Fry’s rescue operation an operative and financial platform. In Fry’s autobiography, Assignment: Rescue, he recounts: “A group of men and women in New York, shocked by the news of this (Vichy-German) armistice, got together and formed the Emergency Rescue Committee. Its purpose: to get the artists, writers, musicians, scientists, professors, political figures–men and women whose works and words had made them enemies of theThird Reich–out of France before they were seized by the Gestapo.”

One of The Exiles interviewees, Poet Hans Sahl, remembers being notified that he was on Fry’s “list”: “I called the Hotel Splendide, and asked for Monsieur Fry. I knocked on the door, and he said to me, “We have been waiting for you.” He gave me a suit, money, and a whiskey. I cried. I just cried. I couldn’t take it any longer, because it was a fairy tale.”

Culture shock that the exiles underwent in America took a heavy toll, even among the famous, which the documentary took pains to expose. In one of the film’s unexpected lighter moments, Austrian-born conductor Erich Leinsdorf (1912-1993) remembers of his early days in New York City: “One day, I decided to see the play, The Far Off Hills. I was absolutely shattered. I hadn’t understood a single word. Weeks later, someone asked me, ‘Have you seen any shows?’ I told him about my experience, and he said the players were from Dublin, and don’t do plays in English, but in Gaelic. Well, I felt better!”

Another exile, the publisher Helen Wolff, painfully shares the culture shock in a more serious vein: “It was a loss of identity. People who were known were asked how to spell their name. You lost your identity and your language, and a certain way of expressing your personality. My husband only spoke German to our son,” she says.

After World War II ended, members of this group had renewed reason for alarm, with the rise of McCarthyism. Social Scientist Konrad Kellen recounts: “Bertolt Brecht was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was crazy. He wasn’t a Communist. Well, after that, he left the United States and went to Berlin. And he didn’t even like Berlin.”

Collectively, these interviewees express great concern for the future of civil society in America. Economist Adolf Loewe tells the camera: “In my old age, I have written a book. It is no scientific book, it has no footnotes. It is a book for the educated, common man. The preliminary title is, The Outlook for Freedom. My conclusion is the outlook as we have known it, domestically, is very dim.” One overarching question arises: In what condition is our freedom in America, in a continuous State of Emergency since the events of September 11, 2001? And, how would this question have been answered by Third Reich ideologue Carl Schmitt, if he had lived today? Another is: What is, and will be, the fate of those facing similar persecution?”

Last updated: June 24, 2008
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