Lion Feuchtwanger

Lion Feuchtwanger (German: [ˈliː.ɔn ˈfɔɪ̯çt.ˌvaŋ.ɐ] (listen); 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German-Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Feuchtwanger's Judaism and fierce criticism of the National Socialist German Workers Party, years before it assumed power, ensured that he would be a target of government-sponsored persecution after Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Following a brief period of internment in France and a harrowing escape from Continental Europe, he found asylum in the United States, where he died in 1958.