Events Calendar

"Enemy Number One": A Tour and Performance at the Villa Aurora

*This trip is for current USC students only. You must use the provided transportation to participate. Space is limited and advance registration is required. RSVP at the event page http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/873329 beginning Thursday, September 30, at 9 a.m. Check-in for the event will begin at 11:15 a.m. on campus. Buses will depart at 12 p.m. and return to campus at 5 p.m. Lunch will be provided at check-in.

The USC Libraries are home to the papers and library of historical novelist Lion Feuchtwanger, who escaped his native Germany after Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933. Because he was an outspoken critic of the Nazi Party, the Nazis ordered his books burned and declared him “Enemy Number One.” The libraries recently published a new edition of Feuchtwanger’s The Devil in France, a memoir of his internment and escape from Nazi-occupied France. He wrote movingly about the political situation in Europe and his experiences as an exiled writer. He later escaped to Los Angeles, where Theodor Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang, Thomas Mann and other German émigré artists and intellectuals gathered during World War II. Feuchtwanger’s story illuminates the struggles faced by artists who speak truth to power and endure exile from their native countries.

In conjunction with this new publication, USC students will have the opportunity to take an intimate look at Lion Feuchtwanger’s life in exile by visiting Villa Aurora, his former home in Pacific Palisades where he hosted figures like Charlie Chaplin, Thomas Mann and Billy Wilder. After a welcoming reception and tour, students will enjoy a staged reading of letters exchanged between Lion and his wife, Marta Feuchtwanger, from the 1930s and ’40s. Acclaimed actor, producer and director Norman Lloyd and actress Nina Franoszek will play the parts of Lion and Marta.

For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.edu

Location: Villa Aurora, Pacific Palisades

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Daria Yudacufski