Books in the Exile Studies series

About 9,000 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany settled in Australia between 1933 and 1945, a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands who fled. Although initially greeted with a mixed reception as enemy aliens some of these refugees remained and made a significant impact on multicultural Australia. This book traces the difficult journey of the orchestral performers, virtuoso soloists, singers, conductors and composers who sought refuge on a distant continent. A few were famous artists who toured Australia and stayed, most notably the piano virtuoso Jascha Spivakovsky and the members of the Weintraubs Syncopators, one of the most successful jazz bands of the Weimar Republic. Drawing on extensive primary sources - including correspondence, travel documents and interviews with the refugees themselves or their descendants - the author depicts in vivid detail the lives of nearly a hundred displaced musicians. Available for the first time in English, this volume brings to light a wealth of Jewish, exilic and musical history that was hitherto unknown.

This book examines the relation between geographic and linguistic border crossings in twentieth-century world literature. Exploring the dynamic from a comparative and translingual perspective, this volume reveals differing literary strategies for responding to exile and argues for the crucial role of exile in understanding writing of the period.

This book is the ¿rst comparative study of the novels written by ¿ve German-speaking women ¿ Anna Gmeyner, Selma Kahn, Hilde Spiel, Martina Wied and Hermynia Zur Mühlen ¿ who had to ¿ee National Socialist Central Europe. Gmeyner, Spiel, Wied and Zur Mühlen found refuge in Britain and thus added ¿ together with male colleagues such as Stefan Zweig and Robert Neumann ¿ an important but rarely investigated new dimension to the British literary landscape. The aim of this study is to reassess the women refugee writers¿ narrative strategies and integrate their work within feminist literary studies. The author investigates the ¿ve writers¿ narrativisation of everyday life, used to subvert the dominant discourse, and their portrayal of the intersection between class, racial and gender oppression. She also shows their innovative ways of picturing the gendered tension between the experiences of exile and exile as a modernist metaphor as well as their search for ways to refute the Nationalist Socialist rewriting of history. The book situates the novels within the theoretical discussions surrounding exile studies, social history and women¿s writing.

After the demise of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, the Jewish population fell victim to Nazi persecution. Hoping to find a safe haven elsewhere in the world, some Czechoslovak Jews turned to Australia to seek refuge. This book focuses on their struggles to survive in life-threatening situations and their efforts to reach the safety of the distant continent.Although the German occupation of Czechoslovakia has been a subject of extensive academic debate, the role of the Australian government in this international event has thus far not been examined. This book evaluates the impact on Australia of policies pursued by Europe¿s leading politicians with regard to Czechoslovakia that ultimately failed to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War.Central to the book is a discussion of Australiäs policy towards the admission of Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia. Drawing on archival sources as well as original interviews conducted with former refugees from Czechoslovakia, the author offers insights into the lives and experiences of these Jewish refugees down under. At the same time, the book sheds light on Australiäs involvement in one of the defining moments of the twentieth century.

How did understandings of Europe change and evolve after the Second World War? During this time, two Polish exiles, Jerzy Stempowski and Andrzej Bobkowski, discussed and redefined their ideas of Europe in the pages of Kultura, the Polish emigre review. This book explores the tension between the concept of Europe and the experience of exile.

Offers a social history of refugees escaping Hungary after the Bolshevik-type revolution of 1919, the ensuing counter revolution, and the rise of anti-Semitism. This book is based on extensive archival work in the USA and Germany.

The study of Czechoslovak women refugees in Britain is noticeably missing from current research and Anglo-Czechoslovak historiography. Oral interviews from former refugees and archival research offer insights into women's diverse experiences, dilemmas and contributions.

Before Nowhere in Africa won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003, the fate of German Jewish exiles in Africa was not widely discussed. This book provides a detailed historical look at German Jewish emigration to Kenya with a focus on child exile, taking Stephanie Zweig's autobiographical works as a point of departure.

After leaving Nazi Germany in 1936, the actor now known as Anton Walbrook settled in Britain, where he starred in lavish biopics of Queen Victoria as well as Dangerous Moonlight and Gaslight. Despite great popularity and a prolific career, Walbrook's persona had an aura of mystery. This is the first full-length biography of the star.