“I’ll never return to Germany until the Hitler reign of terror ends. Germany today is a nation in the grip of madmen—destructive, sadistic, terrorizing.”
Her brown eyes aflame under long black eyelashes and tossing her blonde head, Vicki Baum, authoress of “Grand Hotel” and famous the world over for her writings, thus put her stamp of disapproval on the anti-Semitic rule of Adolf Hitler in Germany, which she called “the land of my adoption.” Miss Baum had not been formerly eager to discuss her Jewish ancestry.
“I was born in Austria,” explained Miss Baum, who was in Seattle vacationing with her husband, Richard Lert, former conductor of the Berlin State Opera, and her two sons, Wolfgang, 16 years old, and Peter, 14.
“I have lived a great part of my life in Germany, however,” the noted authoress, amiable, plump, sophisticated of speech, declared. “And many of my greatest friends are now exiles, like me.”
Miss Baum, now writing an original story of modern life for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, will contribute a complete novelette to the Rosh Hashonah edition of a local Anglo-Jewish publication entitled “Jewish Love.”
The master story-teller, who began writing for publication when she was a 14-year-old child in short frock and pigtails, writes most of her stories after ten o’clock, when her children are asleep. She admits she enjoys eating; greatly admires the realism of Sinclair Lewis, Thornton Wilder and Ernest Hemingway; is enthusiastic about the Northwest; regards Dostoievsky as the chief influence on her literary life; and confesses to have once played the harp in the Deutshes Theatre and the Vienna State Opera.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
