{"id":551,"date":"2020-07-27T13:26:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T11:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nuriaanyo.com\/blog\/amp\/?p=551"},"modified":"2022-04-28T11:14:19","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T09:14:19","slug":"european-artists-in-exile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nuriaanyo.com\/blog\/amp\/2020\/07\/27\/european-artists-in-exile\/","title":{"rendered":"European artists in exile"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“When the homeland becomes foreign, the foreign becomes the homeland<\/em>.”<\/p>Thomas Mann on Heinrich Mann\u2019s 70th birthday, during a gathering at Salka Viertel\u2019s.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This text by N\u00faria A\u00f1\u00f3<\/a> is part of a longer essay titled “The Mother Tongue in Foreign Lands”. It was read at Shanghai Writers’ Association in China on September 11, 2016 and published at Wenhui Daily. Later in 2020, a biography on Jewish scriptwriter and salonni\u00e8re<\/em> Salka Viertel was first published in Spanish as EL SAL\u00d3N DE LOS ARTISTAS EXILIADOS EN CALIFORNIA<\/a><\/em>. Then it was translated into English as T<\/a>HE SALON OF EXILED ARTISTS IN CALIFORNIA<\/a><\/em> and into Greek as \u03a4\u03bf \u03c3\u03b1\u03bb\u03cc\u03bd\u03b9 \u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u03b5\u03be\u03cc\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b9\u03c4\u03b5\u03c7\u03bd\u03ce\u03bd \u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u039a\u03b1\u03bb\u03b9\u03c6\u03cc\u03c1\u03bd\u03b9\u03b1<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A biography on Salka Viertel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Salka Viertel was an exiled Jewish woman well-known in Hollywood in the thirties as a specialist on Greta Garbo scripts. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she first arrived in the United States of America, her communication with the English-speaking Americans was like a silent film: she had to gesture with hands or spoke simply with the gaze, smiling and pulling a long face to be understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like her, most of the European artists who emigrated to the U.S. because of the Nazism were so creative in their mother tongues that to confine themselves in America to small words in English was a constant torment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, she was impelled by the foreign land to learn English as an adult in order to find a job. But her mother tongue was always very close to her life as a salonni\u00e8re.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salka’s salon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday afternoons her home in California welcomed many composers, film and theater directors, actors, physicians and writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salka\u2019s salon was a place to speak with others in their native language. Her house was a shelter and a refuge for the intellectual freedom of those removed from their homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her guest of honor, the German writer Thomas Mann, who sought refuge in Switzerland before being exiled in the U.S., wrote in 1941: \u201cWhen the homeland becomes foreign, the foreign becomes the homeland.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/a> Queen Christina<\/em>, The Painted Veil<\/em>, Anna Karenina<\/em>, Maria Walewska<\/em> or Two-Faced Woman.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> On Heinrich Mann\u2019s 70th birthday, during a gathering at Salka Viertel\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read an excerpt of “The Salon of Exiled Artists in California” by N\u00faria A\u00f1\u00f3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n