Podcast
Exile
Hosted by Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin and Antica Productions · EN
Welcome to Exile, a podcast about Jewish lives under the shadow of fascism. Narrated by award-winning screen and stage actor, Joshua Malina. Untold stories and firsthand accounts drawn from intimate letters, diaries and interviews found in the Leo Baeck Institute’s vast archive. Each episode, a story of beauty and danger that brings history to life. Because the past is always present.
Starting February 24, episodes are released weekly every Tuesday.
The Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin is a research library and archive focused on the history of German-speaking Jews.
Antica Productions produces award-winning non-fiction podcasts, films and series which inform and inspire audiences around the world.
20episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Leo Baeck Part 2: The Teacher of Theresienstadt
Apr 1400:30:14Tap to summarizeThis is part 2 of the remarkable story of Rabbi Leo Baeck. Trapped in the “model ghetto” of Theriesenstadt, Rabbi Baeck led philosophical discussions that gave a fleeting sense of normalcy to his fellow inmates. But life in the ghetto was harrowing – hygiene was poor, food was scarce, and, as a member of the Jewish Council, Baeck had to make decisions that strained his strong moral principles. Dedicated to protecting his community in whatever way he could, Baeck stayed on at Theriesenstadt until the very end, cementing his role as a powerful symbol of German-Jewish resilience and dignity.
Transcribe →Leo Baeck Part 1: The Soft-Spoken Sage
Apr 700:34:04Tap to summarizeRabbi Leo Baeck looms large in German-Jewish history, but he began his career as a smalltown rabbi in present-day Poland. Baeck quickly earned a reputation for moral clarity and quiet resolve, even in the face of a powerful opposition. As World War I gave way to the rise of the Nazis, the pressures on German Jewry intensified, and Baeck was thrust into an impossible role: guiding a community through its most dangerous and devastating hour. This is the first chapter of a two-part story.
Transcribe →Lion Feuchtwanger: From Moscow to Hollywood
Mar 3100:41:49Tap to summarizeIn 1933, German author Lion Feuchtwanger wrote the first ever novel about the experience of Jews under Hitler. The book became a global sensation. When he finally received an offer in 1938 to adapt his most popular book for the screen in Stalin’s Russia, he jumped at the chance. The film was a success, but the decision would come to haunt him when he lived in California during the Red Scare. The Lion Feuchtwanger Collection in the LBI Archives contains a small amount of original correspondence, manuscripts for a translation of Lysistrata, and an essay on the historical consciousness of the Jews. Lion Feuchtwanger also appears in the extensive papers of his brother Ludwig, which are held by the LBI Archives. Learn more at lbi.org/feuchtwanger
Transcribe →Growing Up at the Berlin Zoo
Mar 2400:38:14Tap to summarizeIn the late 1930s, one of the few places in Berlin that still allowed Jewish visitors was the Zoological Garden, which was established with the support of many Jewish donors. As antisemitic laws took over elsewhere, the Zoo remained a space for community and childhood joy. Eventually, however, even the Zoo would betray the Jews. Sixty years later, one man with fond memories of the zoo realized that an injustice had occurred against his family, and did everything he could to right the wrongs of the past. The James Cohn Collection in the LBI archives documents his father Dr. Werner Cohn’s battle for restitution of his family’s share in the Berlin Zoo, including correspondence with Zoo officials in 2000. The Papers of Gerald M. Friedman, a former Trustee of the LBI, also document his family’s efforts dating back to the 1960s to recover Zoo shares. They include copies of the entire family’s photographic Zoo membership cards. Learn more at lbi.org/zoo
Transcribe →Hannah Arendt: Origins of a Controversy
Mar 1700:47:32Tap to summarizeHannah Arendt’s life was shaped by exile. The German-Jewish thinker was forced to flee Nazi Germany as a young woman, and her experience of statelessness impacted her academic and political pursuits for the rest of her life. Independent and single-minded from an early age, Hannah’s intense commitment to her own moral responsibility carried her through anti-Nazi activism, years of exile, and a controversy that shook up the German-Jewish intellectual world. Hannah Arendt was deeply involved in the early activities of LBI New York after it was founded in 1955. However, her papers are at the Library of Congress and her personal library is at Bard College. One significant collection in the LBI Archives that does bear her name is the “Hannah Arendt Eichmann in Jerusalem Collection”, which holds clippings documenting the furious response to her 1963 book in papers ranging from Aufbau to the Congregation Habonim Bulletin to the New Republic. Another collection of correspondence documents the response of the LBI and other German-Jewish organizations to Eichmann before the book’s publication in German. Learn more at lbi.org/arendt
Transcribe →Manfred George’s Aufbau: Reconstructing the News
Mar 1000:39:27Tap to summarizeIn 1930s New York, there was only one publication that fully covered the worsening situation for Jews in Europe: the Aufbau. With a daring approach to journalism, editor Manfred George transformed the tiny newsletter of a German-Jewish social club into a lifeline for a worldwide community of refugees. His paper also reported on the atrocities unfolding in Hitler’s Germany long before the mainstream press. The Aufbau held together a community strained past the breaking point, and helped its local readers integrate as Americans. It was a project so successful that it could not last. In addition to the complete run of Aufbau from 1934–2004, which the LBI has digitized and made freely accessible online, our collections include the papers of Norbert and Lilo Goldenberg, the publishers of Aufbau. Learn more at lbi.org/aufbau
Transcribe →Hedy Lamarr: Beauty and Brains
Mar 300:41:27Tap to summarizeIn 1937, a young Austrian-Jewish actor named Hedwig Kiesler left Europe to pursue her dream in America. Within months, she became one of the biggest stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood: Hedy Lamarr. Known as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Hedy’s unforgettable face and mysterious allure would take her far in the film industry – but that wasn’t her only success story. In fact, her greatest achievement was an invention that transformed the technology that powers our world. LBI Collections include rich materials on German-speaking Jewish immigrants and refugees in the Hollywood film industry, from Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle to director Ernst Lubitsch to film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold to actors like Peter Lorre and Hedy Lamarr. Learn more at lbi.org/hollywood
Transcribe →Vera Haymann’s "Theater in Chains"
Feb 2400:39:14Tap to summarizeThis episode is dedicated to the memory of Winnie Meyer-Ricard, the eldest daughter of Vera Haymann and Herbert Meyer-Ricard. After nightfall in German-occupied Amsterdam, a small group of friends risked their lives to engage in a unique form of resistance: puppet theater. Behind the darkened windows of a safe-house, marionettes built by graphic designers Vera Haymann and Herbert Meyer-Ricard acted out biting satires of the bitter circumstances unfolding outside. This “fettered theater” gave the audience a glimmer of hope and solidarity in a time of darkness. The Hermann Haymann Collection in the LBI Archives includes two vivid, hand-illustrated booklets which document Vera Haymann and Herbert Mayer-Ricard’s life in hiding in Amsterdam. See them online at lbi.org/haymann
Transcribe →Exile: Season 5 is coming soon
Feb 1000:01:25Tap to summarizeJoin us for Exile Season 5 – another collection of compelling stories of Jewish lives under the shadow of fascism, drawn from the Leo Baeck Institute’s vast archive. Narrated by critically-acclaimed actor Joshua Malina. Starting February 24, episodes are released every Tuesday. The Leo Baeck Institute is a research library and archive focused on the history of German-speaking Jews. Antica Productions is an award-winning production company based in Toronto that believes in the power of purpose-driven storytelling to change the world.
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Best of Exile: The Artist Who Made Beauty Out of Destruction
Nov 1100:36:01Tap to summarizeFor more information about the exhibit, please visit: https://www.lbi.org/exhibitions/schames-exhibit/
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