VI 'I N T RODUCTION swing with the novel and 1 don't know whether 1 should con- tinue or take on this new assignrnent." His blue eyes behind huge glasses seemed to ignite. "Of course you must go. The novel can wait. You can always go back to the novel. This is a chance of a lifetime. How many young women--even men-are given such an assignment?" I never regretted taking his advice. Soon, our conversation returned to the subjeet of his own life and work. He told me he was fortunate to be living in Sanary, near Marseilles, Franee, in 1933, when he was asked by the British to write a play about life in Germany under Hitler's emerging shadow. Had he then been in Germany denouneing Hitler, he would probably have been arrested, tortured, even murdered, for what already was a substantial outpouring of his anti-Nazi articles and speeches. He aecepted the commission and wrote the play entitled Die Geschwister Oppenheim (The Family Oppenheim), However, as soon as the British gave diplomatie reeognition to Hitler's new regirne, they cancelled any plans to perform it, In six months, from April to Oetober 1933, Feuehtwanger turned it into the historical novel called The Oppermanns. In the epilogue to the German edition ofExit, a later histor- ical novel by Feuchtwanger, he explained that he had written The Oppermanns in white heat: "I wanted to enlighten the readers of the world as soon as possible about the true face of the Nazi regime and its dangers." Ir was an early wake-up call. Too rnany people were apathetic about Hitler and the evil that was National Socialism.. Tao many looked upon Hitler as a clown with 3 Charlie Chaplin mous- tache. In essays and plays, and in The Oppermanns, Feueht- wanger tore open the curtain of anti-Semitism in Germany. "How did you escape frorn the Nazis?" I asked hirn.

INTRODUCTION vii "I owe it to my wife, Marta." Marta Loeffler Feuchtwanger, famous in Munich for her beauty, twice saved his life. In 1914 they were living in Hamamet, a small place south of Tunis, when the first Great War of the twentieth century broke out, and they were caught by surprise. They became "enerny aliens" and were imprisoned in primitive conditions. Marta managed to escape, smuggled hirn out, and hurried thern aboard an Italian ship. They landed in Palermo, Italy, and then went horne to Germany, where he enlisted in the German military and fought for a few months in the war. The second escape occurred while they were living in Sa- nary, in southern France. In May 1940, France fell to the Nazis. Captured by the Vichy French, Lion and Marta were again arrested as "enerny aliens" and thrown into separate prlson camps. 1 sat mesmerized as he told me how he was forced to carry bricks up a hill, then carry them down again, and repeat the process until he was exhausted. "It was one of the Nazi tricks to dehumanize us with useless labor." "Did 1 think I was going to die?" He repeated my question. He shook his head. "No man believes in his own death. That's what kept me alive." Marta again escaped from her camp. She learned that Lion was ill and so mistreated that he was close to death. Desperate, she forced her way into the office of the American Consul, Hiram Bingham, Jr., who then hid her in his own horne. A co- terie of Arnericans-among thern Varian Fry, the diplomat the world now knows was rescuing hundreds of [ewish writ- ers and artists-worked to save him. Feuchtwauger and Marta crossed the Pyrenees on foot to safety.