June 1940: France surrenders to Germany. The Gestapo is searching for Heinrich Mann and Franz Werfel, Hannah Arendt, Lion Feuchtwanger and many other writers and artists who had sought asylum in France since 1933. The young American journalist Varian Fry arrives in Marseille with the aim of rescuing as many as possible.  This is the harrowing story of their flight from the Nazis under the most dangerous and threatening circumstances. 

It is the most dramatic year in German literary history.  In Nice, Heinrich Mann listens to the news on Radio London as air-raid sirens wail in the background. Anna Seghers flees Paris on foot with her children. Lion Feuchtwanger is trapped in a French internment camp as the SS units close in. They all end up in Marseille, which they see as a last gateway to freedom. This is where Walter Benjamin writes his final essay to Hannah Arendt before setting off to escape across the Pyrenees. This is where the paths of countless German and Austrian writers, intellectuals and artists cross. And this too is where Varian Fry and his comrades risk life and limb to smuggle those in danger out of the country. This intensely compelling book lays bare the unthinkable courage and utter despair, as well as the hope and human companionship, which surged in the liminal space of Marseille during the darkest days of the twentieth century.

Uwe Wittstock is a journalist, critic and author who lives in Germany. He was awarded the prestigious Theodor Wolff prize for journalism in 1989.

Prologue

Backstories
Two Days in July 1935

Le Désastre
May 1940
June 1940
July 1940

Over the Mountains
August 1940
September 1940
October 1940

The Villa, Waiting, and Death
November 1940 to February 1941

Spring in France
February to June 1941

The Long Goodbye
June to November 1941

What Happened Afterward

Epilogue

Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Bibliography