Литература двух Америк (Jun 2024)
“Through Mexico to the Soviet Union”: German Emigrant Writers in Mexico during the World War II and Their Contacts with the USSR
Abstract
The article is devoted to the history of the German writers’ emigration during the Second World War in Mexico. Mexico was not a major center of German emigration like the Soviet Union or the United States, but the Mexican government supported anti-fascist émigrés who were in France before its occupation. The Mexican consulate in Marseille issued visas to many German writers, but only Anna Seghers was able to move from France to Mexico. Bodo Uhse and Ludwig Renn went there from the United States, Alfred Kantorovicz and Hans Marchwitza had to stay in the United States, because transit through the USA became impossible since 1941. German writers maintained constant contact with the Soviet Writers’ Union. Correspondence often did not reach the addressees, but before the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Mexico, this was the only way to exchange information. The small German colony in Mexico was engaged in active antifascist activities. The movement “Free Germany” (“Freies Deutschland”) was organized in Mexico a year and a half earlier than the National Committee “Free Germany” in the USSR. Although it seemed that they were two branches of the same organization, in fact they were two different entities with different goals and with the same name. At this moment an internal conflict among the German Communists became apparent; years later it had tragic consequences. After the surrender of Germany, German writers were not able to go directly to their homeland, since the American law prohibiting transit through the United States was still in force. In 1946–1948 German writers were leaving Mexico on Soviet cargo ships: they could get to Germany only through the Soviet Union.
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