Figure 1. Figure 3. Annemarie Schwarzenbach, self portrait. Figure 4. Maurice Wertheim, Figure 5. Vassar Girls in Peace Demonstration, April Figure 7. Martin Gumpert, Figure 9. At Home in Princeton, N. Photograph by Carl Mydans. Figure Manuscript page for speech Klaus delivered in April Senator Robert R. Reynolds, Erika being interviewed by newspaper men on her arrival in New York from Lisbon, October Muriel Rukeyser.
Photograph by Imogen Cunningham. Klaus autographs his book on Gide. Photograph by Hubert L. Colonel Edward I.
Pratt, Martin Herz loads propaganda pamphlets into an empty shell casing. Photograph by Charles Corte. Women war correspondents in France. Klaus, with Rini and Fritz Landshoff. Erika and Klaus Mann in California, Photograph by Florence Homolka. Hand-made Christmas collage by Erika Mann.
Erika and Klaus Mann first came to America as touristsβand stayed for six months. Nine years later, they returned and made it their home. On their first visit to the United States in , they had been enthusiastic pleasure-seekers and pacifists eager to experience all that America could offer. By their focus had changed, and they had become prominent figures in the fight against fascism. They returned, not to be entertained as much as to serve, to explain to Americans the crisis facing German and European culture as a result of the new Nazi regime, and to urge Americans to take action against the further spread of fascism.
Erika and Klaus knew from their earlier visit that America was far more complex than the rosy image many immigrants had of it; they knew that its trumpeted openness was belied by heavy undercurrents of racism and anti-Semitism, and that its glittering cities hid pockets of deprivation and despair.
