DORIS BERGER (Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at the Academy Museum) will discuss with author THOMAS BLUBACHER his recently translated book Weimar under the Palms: Pacific Palisades, German Exiles, and the Invention of Hollywood.
In the book, Blubacher details the ambiguous and mixed fates of the Jewish intellectuals and cultural figures who fled Nazi Germany and settled in Southern California in the 1930s–1940s, in the process creating a unique cultural sanctuary. While many of these émigrés found great success writing, directing, or composing for the film industry, some never quite fit into their new surroundings, feeling as if they were stuck in a “sun prison” far from home.