Uwe Wittstock: Marseille 1940 - Die große Flucht der Literatur

In the organizer's words:

About the book

1940: It is the most dramatic year in German literary history. Hitler's Wehrmacht has defeated France. In Nice, Heinrich Mann listens to the news on Radio London during the bomb scare. Anna Seghers flees Paris on foot with her children. Lion Feuchtwanger is imprisoned in a French internment camp while the SS units close in. They all end up in Marseille, from where they seek 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 is here that Varian Fry and his comrades-in-arms risk life and limb to smuggle the persecuted out of the country. Uwe Wittstock tells the story of incredible courage and utter despair, of defiant hope and humanity in dark times.

Moderation: Ronya Othmann

In cooperation with the German Association of Journalists

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