Students work with primary sources at the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library. Photo: John Vidar.
The fifth in a series exploring the many USC Libraries. The previous post looked inside the recently-renovated Science and Engineering Library.
During World War II, Los Angeles became a refuge for many German-speaking exiles who fled religious, ethnic, or political persecution by the Nazis. Some of Germany's finest public intellectuals, including Jewish-German novelist Lion Feuchtwanger, called Southern California home during those years. USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, home to Feuchtwanger’s papers and book collection, is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Feuchtwanger, his wife Marta, and their fellow exiles. Since its founding, the library has become an essential destination for scholars researching the experience of German émigrés in Los Angeles.
Feuchtwanger (1884-1958) was an internationally renowned historical novelist whose outspoken criticism of Hitler and National Socialism made him an enemy of the state when the Nazis assumed power in Germany in 1933. Driven into exile in France, he was imprisoned by French authorities at the outbreak of World War II. In 1940, Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta (1891-1987) escaped Europe and emigrated to the United States. They eventually settled in Pacific Palisades, purchasing a 6,000 square foot house. The house, known as Villa Aurora, soon became a hub for the German-speaking exile community in Southern California.
Lion Feuchtwanger died in 1958. Seeking to preserve her husband’s legacy, his widow Marta willed the couple’s estate to USC. After her death in 1987, the university sold the building and property to a German nonprofit organization but left more than 20,000 volumes at the villa, which was preserved as a historical monument. Some 8,000 of the rarest books, including a 1493 edition of Liber Chronicarum (the Nuremberg Chronicle), were moved to the University Park Campus.
Today, in addition to housing Feuchtwanger’s impressive book collection, the Feuchtwanger Library is an indispensable source of knowledge about German-speaking exiles in Southern California. Scholars from around the world travel to Los Angeles to access the papers of Feuchtwanger and several other German émigrés, including Hanns Eisler, Felix Guggenheim, and Heinrich Mann.
Earlier this summer, the USC Libraries released a new English edition of Feuchtwanger's memoir The Devil in France, which tells the story of the author's internment in France. To commemorate the publication, the libraries have partnered with USC Visions and Voices to organize "Enemy Number One," a series of two upcoming events inspired by the book. Please see this earlier Libwire post to learn more about the events and how to get your free copy of the book.
The Feuchtwanger Memorial Library is located in Special Collections on the second floor of Doheny Memorial Library. For current hours and other information, please visit the library's web page.
Cover of the USC Libraries' new edition of The Devil in France.