Liesl Frank, Charlotte Dieterle and the European Film Fund. Martin Sauter
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which are filled with her observations and deductions regarding the EFF, a topic, it seems, she at one point intended to investigate, though, sadly she died before she could do so. Lastly, the purpose of my visit to the National Archives in Washington DC was to secure material regarding the US visa policy in the 1930s, as it is my premise that it was the strict US visa restrictions and the ensuing refugee crisis following Kristallnacht, which abetted the foundation of the EFF.
Biography and Exile History
Since contemporary politics and history played a major role in the founding of the EFF, and given the fact that the EFF was, after all, founded by film artists and aimed primarily but exclusively as we will see, at refugee film artists in dire straits, mine has become an interdisciplinary study that draws on German and US history and political science as well as film studies. Influenced and inspired by Horak and Asper, my approach is also chronological and biographical. It is, after all, our biographies - our background, education and upbringing - that determine our lives and future actions. More than this, however, looking at biographies can be compared to stitching together a vast social canvas which sheds light on historical interconnections by focusing on social networks such as the EFF. To quote Ray Monk:
We should, I maintain, look to biography to provide a crucially important example and model of what Ludwig Wittgenstein called ‘the kind of understanding that consists in seeing connections.’ This kind of understanding stands in sharp contrast to the theoretical understanding provided by science and is, Wittgenstein maintained, what we [are] or should be, striving for (Monk 2007: 528).
As a study of a refugee organisation founded as a result of Nazism, my examination of the EFF, furthermore, not only fills an existing gap in film history as far as the EFF itself is concerned. As we have seen above, refugee organisations in general have received scant attention by exile scholars. Equally neglected by researchers is the presence of women in the broader topic of exile. Hence by homing in on the impact on the EFF of two women - Liesl Frank and Charlotte Dieterle - this thesis fulfils several purposes: While the EFF is at the centre of my examination, this thesis also draws attention to the crucial role aid organisations in general played in supporting refugees from Nazi Germany. Moreover, pointing to the input of Frank and Dieterle, whose contribution to the EFF has thus far been obscured by the spotlight turned on Ernst Lubitsch, the organisation’s president, and Paul Kohner, its founder - my study puts Frank and Dieterle where they belong: at the centre of the EFF. For as we will see in the chapters that follow, the EFF such we know it, would not have existed had it not been for their input. The EFF’s founding was of course, as my thesis will elucidate, a direct result of the apathy of the world at large to the political situation in Nazi Germany and the reluctance of foreign governments to take on refugees. But we still know little of the social history of refugees in exile and this thesis fills that gap by painting a broad social picture of the Los Angeles émigré community, focusing on people who had bit parts in film history and whose lives have never before been illuminated.
In summary, the purpose of this thesis is as follows: first, to draw attention to the many exile and refugee organisations by examining one of them, the EFF. In doing so, I also highlight the presence of women in the broader topic of exile as it was two women who were at the centre of the EFF. My investigation of this organisation demonstrates that women played a much larger role in exile and exile communities than history and literature have thus far accorded them. Additionally, I show how the history of the EFF may be used to highlight the apathy of the international community in the face of the political situation after 1933. Lastly, by shifting the focus away from figureheads of the émigré community to below-the-line film artists, technicians, theatre artists and so on, I foreground those refugees whose lives have hitherto been obscured by their more famous fellow-émigrés. After the conclusion of this present chapter, this thesis is structured as follows:
Chapter Two examines the founding of the EFF, looking at the political situation in Nazi Germany and the US, and showing how due to wide spread anti-Semitism, all doors closed on the Jews, making aid organisations such as the EFF the only way out. Furthermore, I show how the name - EFF - may have been the result of a climate of anti-Semitism in the US. Outlining the aims, purpose, and structure of the EFF, Chapter Two also introduces the two women who are at the centre of my thesis - Liesl Frank and Charlotte Dieterle - and demonstrates how their involvement in the EFF was the defining experience of their working lives.
Chapter Three homes in on donations and donors, focussing on Frank’s and Dieterle’s input into fundraising and fund allocation. Using tabulated data from EFF files, I show how the profession of an émigré in the film industry predetermined whether they would become EFF donors or beneficiaries. Four case studies further examine the motivation and background of EFF donors in the context of their relationship to the EFF and the exile community.
Chapter Four examines EFF beneficiaries by again looking at Frank’s and Dieterle’s role in aiding them. Analysis of EFF files shows how certain professions in the film industry were more likely to be affected by the hardship of exile than others. I use tabular data on beneficiaries to underscore how the reputation of certain émigrés prior to their emigration reflected on the often preferential treatment they received from the EFF. Four case studies of beneficiaries further illuminate the plight of individual émigrés and the role of the EFF in helping them.
Chapter Five investigates non-financial aid granted by the EFF to its beneficiaries. Here, the focus lies on the EFF’s collaboration with the ERC, zooming in on Frank’s and Dieterle’s input in particular. A substantial part of non-financial aid which the EFF - in collaboration with the ERC - concerned itself with on behalf of the émigrés, involved the issuing of affidavits enabling the refugees to apply for a US visa. Chapter Five also examines US visa regulations as well as the attitude of host countries, notably France, towards the émigrés, and suggests, echoing Chapter Two, that the volume of red tape that surrounded emigration to the US was a significant impediment to refugees’ survival.
Chapter Six traces the demise of the EFF. Focusing once more on Frank and Dieterle, I show how the EFF disintegrated as a result of the withdrawal of these two central figures and, additionally, for political reasons triggered by the post-1945 Communist witch-hunt in the US. Chapter Six also demonstrates how the ‘hierarchy of privilege’ illustrated in Chapters Three and Four continued until the EFF’s transformation into the European Relief Fund, until which point a small number of illustrious émigrés - Alfred Doblin and Heinrich Mann, for instance - continued to receive financial support from the EFF.
Footnotes
1 Rashomon: A film by Akira Kurosawa (Japan 1951).
2 Lawrence Weschler is the grandson of exiled composer Ernst Toch.
3 Oral history Marta Feuchtwanger: Volume 3, tape 23, August 1975, Marta Feuchtwanger Collection, Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
4 Key works on American film history I drew on include: Alper, Benjamin Leontief. Dictators, Democracy, and American Public Culture. Chapel Hill/ NC: 2003; Birdwell, Michael E. Celluloid Soldiers - Warner Bros.'s Campaign Against Nazism. New York/ NY: New York University Press, 1999; Gabler, Neal. An Empire Of Their Own - How The Jews Invented Hollywood. New York/ NY: Anchor Books, 1988; Giovacchini, Saverio. Hollywood Modernism - Film and Politics in the Age of the New Deal. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001; Schatz, Thomas. The Genius of the System - Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. New York/ NY: Pantheon Books, 1988; Shaw, Tony. Hollywood's Cold War. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007; Books and studies on contemporary politics of the 1930s and 40s I consulted include: Dell, Robert Edward. After Evian (In: Manchester Guardian, July 16, 1938, page 12; Friedländer, Saul. Nazi Germany And The Jews. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997. Kaplan, Marion A. Between Dignity and Despair - Jewish Life in Nazi Germany. New York/ NY: Oxford University Press, 1999; King, Desmond. Making Americans. London: Harvard University Press, 2000; Marrus, Michael & Paxton, Robert O. Vichy France and the Jews. Stanford/ CA: Stanford University Press, 1995; Morse, Arthur. While Six Million Died - A Chronicle of American Apathy. New York/ NY: Random House, 1968; Zucker, Bat-Ami. In Search Of Refuge - Jews and US Consuls in Nazi