Displacement: Zweig, Roth and Benjamin

Having studied law at Magdalen College Oxford, RichardHarper practised as a barrister and then sat as a family lawjudge. During his judicial career he has written on medicaltreatment and the law relating to the protection of childrenand vulnerable adults. He now writes and lectures onthe overall law relating to the protection of children, andDISPLACEMENT is his first work of nonfiction outside of thelaw. The connecting theme of Harper’s writing is examininginjustice and how it may be ameliorated. He lives with hisfamily in West London.

• ContentsIntroduction ............................................................................................ 6Chapter 1The Works of Zweig, Roth and Benjamin ................................. 9Chapter 2Zweig, Roth and Benjamin: Their Backgrounds .................... 26Chapter 3Zweig, Roth and Benjamin: Their Suspicionsof Nationalism ................................................................................... 32Chapter 4Zweig, Roth and Benjamin: Their Jewish Identities ............. 37Chapter 5Rabid Antisemitism at the turn of the 20th Century ............. 42Chapter 6The Participation (or otherwise) of Zweig, Roth andBenjamin in World War 1 .............................................................. 53Chapter 7Displacement of Persons in Weimar Berlin ............................ 57Chapter 8Displacement of Jews in Europe between1933 and 1940 .................................................................................... 62Chapter 9Zweig, Roth, Benjamin: Their attitudes towardsthe creation of a Jewish State ....................................................... 67Chapter 10Benjamin, Roth and Zweig: Forced to Fleeinto Exile ............................................................................................. 76Chapter 11Zweig Roth and Benjamin: Their Lives in Exile ..................... 81Chapter 12The relationships between Zweig,Roth and Benjamin ......................................................................... 87Chapter 13The friendships of Zweig,Roth and Benjamin with others .................................................. 97Chapter 14The psychological vulnerabilities of Benjamin,Zweig and Roth .................................................................................. 110Chapter 15Zweig, Roth and Benjamin: Their Final Journeys ................. 117Chapter 16Zweig, Roth and Benjamin:A Reflective Overview .................................................................... 124Epilogue ................................................................................................... 132Dedication ............................................................................................... 133Acknowledgements ............................................................................... 135Bibliography ........................................................................................... 136Index ......................................................................................................... 139About the Author .................................................................................. 142

"Three dazzling but doomed literary talents. Three interlocking biographies drawn from the darkest chapter of Jewish experience in 20th century Europe. Richard Harper's concise and commanding account of the shared destinies of Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth and Walter Benjamin wraps the harrowing realities of exile around philosophical questions of art, nationalism and Jewish identity. As we face a growing refugee crisis today, the message of 'Displacement' could not be more relevant."Jeremy Myerson, Professor Emeritus, Royal College of Art “Displacement: Zweig, Roth and Benjamin is a timely study of three powerful writers whose lives were suddenly upended by the Nazis’ coming to power. Like millions of others, they were forced from their homes and places of safety. As contributors to a radical literary Mitteleuropa in the 1920s and 1930s, they found themselves displaced from the cultural worlds that they inhabited and shaped. In this neat and thoughtful survey of their overlapping lives and times, Richard Harper reminds us why we should read and re-read these writers again today. As he shows, they are a ‘warning sign’ of how the seemingly secure foundations of civilised society can collapse when persecution and hatred become a new kind of orthodoxy.”   Dr Mark Donnelly, Associate Professor, History, St Mary’s University, Twickenham