(HOLOCAUST)

Mann, Thomas (German Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, 1875-1955). Group of three Typed Letters Signed all written in English to Morris Troper.
Concerns Mann’s detailed request that the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee use their good offices to assist the Dutch publisher Walter Landauer escape Nazi-occupied Europe. Two pages. New York 10th November, 1941. * Letter of gratitude for assisting Landauer. One page. Pacific Palisades, 20th December, 1941. * Book-related matters. One page Pacific Palisades, 18th September, 1945. * With: Mann, Erika (German actress and eldest daughter of Thomas Mann, 1905-69). Autograph Letter Signed. Exuberant request that Troper assist Mann’s acquaintances in Amsterdam. Two pages, written in pencil. With accompanying envelope. Lisbon, 6th July, 1941.


Following the seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933, the Berlin-born publisher Walter Landauer (1902-44) fled Germany for Austria and then Switzerland. Yet it was only in Amsterdam he felt secure enough to establish the Allert de Lange publishing house which focused on “Exil-literatur.” The German occupation of the Netherlands in May, 1940 forced the closure of the publishing house and Landauer went underground. Thomas Mann and other German exiles sought to help Landauer flee to the United States, however he was eventually captured and arrested in 1943. He died of starvation a year later in Bergen Belsen.