Feuchtwanger

She helps manage the Pacific Palisades homes once owned by Thomas Mann and Lion Feuchtwanger, bestselling German writers who moved to Los Angeles in the 1940s as part of an exodus of European intellectuals fleeing the Nazis.

Today, the Mann House and Villa Aurora, which is Feuchtwanger’s home, are cultural centers that offer residency programs for writers and artists whose work embraces the spirit of their former owners.

She especially thought of Feuchtwanger, who refused to succumb to despair after losing homes in Germany and France to the Nazis and then building a new life in the U.S.

The homes of many of Mann’s and Feuchtwanger’s fellow European refugees didn’t make it.

While writers like Mike Davis and Joan Didion were rightfully cited as prophetic voices after the Palisades and Eaton fires, we should pay attention to Mann and Feuchtwanger, whose words are especially relevant in an era where strongmen are on the rise worldwide and people are escaping from failing countries.