48 Friday, May 20, 1083 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS TV Docudrama 'TheOppermanns' Based on Feuchtwanger Work By LEONARD N. SIMONS (Editor's note: Adver- tising executive and communal leader Leonard N. Simons created the following K . Where Fit is Foremost . ' OSMS Uptown • Southfield Rd. at 11 1 /2 Mile • 559-3900 Southfield at II Mile , 569-6930 Big & Tall • backgrounder on "The Oppermanns," who will be the subject of a TV special 9 p.m. Saturday and 9 p.m. May 28 on Channel 56.) Many will recognize and remember this title ("The Oppermanns") because it is the same as the famous book written 50 years ago, in 1933, by that great German-Jewish author and historical novelist, Lion Feuchtwanger. Thomas the GI ORCHES-1 RA 345-7139 541-7651 Mann once said about him: "Lion Feuchtwanger — never a name more unpro- nounceable — yet never more renowned in the liter- ary world." The film, "The Opper- manns" is unique because for the first time in TV his- tory the same program is being shown all over the world at practically the same time. The event is re- ported "as a sensation" especially in Germany and in England, but most of all in Israel. "The Opper- manns" happens to be the first TV film made in Ger- many that was shown in Is- rael. Feuchtwanger was one of the earliest German authors to recognize that Hitler was dangerous. He became a dedicated and ef- fective anti-Nazi propagan- dist. He ridiculed Hitler in his speeches and in his books going back to 1930 MEMORIES IN MOTION By VIDEO PHOTOGRAPHERS • Computer Editing • Dolby Stereo & Audio Dubbing • Professional Video Equipment • Dubbing & Special Effects Call For An Appointment . . . We Will Bring Our Demonstration Tape To You .. At No Obligation 111 01.64 f rcrAt■ 7: 552-1443 1.i.. !T e!arge PLAY STRUCTURES For Fun at Home Extra Heavy-Duty Construction To Last A Lifetime Sold With or Without Installation Prices From $325 to $1100 Visit Our Display in West Bloomfield at 7520 Pontiac Trail 1/2 Mile East of Haggerty Road I Buy . Direct from the Manufacturer For Additional Information Box 667 Please Write or Call: Guffrey Products P.O. Brighton, Michigan. 8116 (313) 229-9646 7 • - HAVE I GOT A BUICK FOR YOU! NEW 1983 buick REGAL 24 rem c•3 SHELDON METZ SALES MGR. 600 S. MAIN, ROYAL AL OAK O TIL MON.& THURS. P.M. M8-3600 LION FEUCHTWANGER Luckily during 1932, Feuchtwanger with his wife, Marta, had left Ger- many for an extended speaking trip in America. After Hitler came into .power, the Feuchtwangers never returned to Germany. The Nazis took over. their home and burned his very large and very valuable li- brary. Feuchtwanger spent the rest of his life in exile in various countries including France and the United States. The Feuchtwangers were captured in France when the Germans took over France. They were thrown into concentration camps, separately, in Marsailles, which were under Nazi- Vichy control Mrs. Feuchtwanger made her es- cape. Because of her friend- ship with the U.S. Consul in Marsailles and with the backing of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt, Feuchtwanger was issued an emergency visa under the name of "J.L. Wetch- eek" which Feuchtwanger had used as his pen-name on various occasions in his early days. Feuchtwanger translated into English, means "wet cheek." In 1940, he was smuggled out of his concentration camp. The husband and wife went over the Pyrenees Mountains to Spain and Portugal. They had many "cloak and dagger" experi- ences, but eventually got to the United States — to California. Feuchtwanger liked to say he was a German novelist whose "heart- beat was Jewish and whose mind was cos- mopolitan." He wrote 16 novels and 10 plays about French, Spanish, British, American and Jewish - history. His books were translated into 33 lan- guages. In 1963, the Wayne State University Press found that Feuchtwanger had been writing a scholarly textbook for schools about historical novels, but it wasn't finished. He died before he finished his manuscript. However, Dr. Hal Basilius, the WSU Press director, flew out to Los Angeles, met the widow, and was given permission to publish the book which is called, "The House of Desdemona." Unfortunately, the sec- ond half of the book was never completed, but there was enough in the un- finished manuscript that made what he did write very worthwhile publishing. when he attacked Hitler openly through his novel "Success." He wrote "The Oppermanns" in 1933 while sco in exile in France in reac- tion to Hitler's ascension to power that year as Reichkanzler. Feuchtwanger was proud to report that "for years, Hitler and the Nazis have been calling me their Enemy Number One..." The film, "The Opper- manns," brings to the sc- reen a vivid picture of early life in the Third Reich under the mad-man Adolph Hit- MARTA FEUCHTWANGER ler. It describes the downfall of an eminent German- Feutchwanger's widow, Jewish family of Berlin at Marta, who recently cele- the beginning of Nazi perse- brated her 92nd birthday is cutions. It details the brutal still very .much alive with pressures of the Gestapo on full command of all her their victims; it portrays a faculties. She lives in a fictional yet realistic repre- Spanish-style mansion in sentation of how the Nazi Pacific Palisades, Calif., terror infiltrated all do- overlooking the Pacific mains of the life of the Jews Ocean. She gave the 20- in Germany and especially room mansion and the how it 'affected every famous Feuchtwanger Li- member of the Oppermann brary, which is valued at clan. over $3 million, to the Uni- The book was one of the versity of Southern Califor- most widely read novels of nia in 1959, a year after her the early '30s.. It had tre- husband's death. mendous sales throughout Five years later she Europe and many parts of willed the remainder of her the world. estate — over $1 million — History tells us that in to the University of South- 1932, Prime Minister Mac- ern California to build a Dbnald of England re- Feuchtwanger Memorial quested Feuchtwanger to Library on the campus. It is prepare the scenario for an a fantastic library that has anti-Nazi feature' movie or over 35,000 volumes includ- film. Feuchtwanger ac- ing thousands of priceless cepted the assignment and first editions from the 15th did a screenplay in two through the 20th Centuries. months called, "Die Ges- There are complete chwister Oppermann," Pa. Coalition first editions of many of ("The Oppermann Chil- Seeks to Combat the most famous authors dren") but by then His in the world. There are ew Federalism also 14 Incunabula books Majesty's Government had resolved on a policy of ac- PITTSBURGH (JTA) — (books that were printed commodation with Herr The Pennsylvania Jewis h before 1500) including a Hitler, culminating in "ap- Coalition (PJC), represent _ priceless Nuremberg peasement." The film was ing eight Jewish federa _ Chronicle (dated 1493) never made in England. tions, has moved into high said to be a source of the In 1933, Feuchtwanger gear in an effort to reverse a first book written about converted his dramatic state government proposa 1 Faust. effort into a novel which which could be a major issue She dresses almost exclu- a Dutch firm published. for the Jewish communitie s sively in simple black When the book hit Ger- of the state in their care o f Chinese attire, lives in the many, an important Nazi the aged. mansion with her 200- whose name was Opper- The PJC was formed some year-old turtle. She's still mann contacted 20 months ago as a by- vigorous and athletic. She Feuchtwanger and product of the proposed shift swims in the ocean daily, threatened him. He said of social service program climbs the mountains near that unless funding from the federal to her home; and she is the Feuchtwanger changed. the state level. curator of the the title of the book, The PJC monitors reg- Feuchtwanger Collection. Feuchtwanger's brother ulatory and legislative de- She recenity completed a would be, thrown in a velopments in Harrisburg, 2,000-page transcribed ver- concentration camp. Be- the state capital, which af- si on of her oral history story cause of that Nazi, the fect the Jewish community, of her life with title was changed to "Die seeks new funding sources Fe uchtwanger. Geschwister Op- from the state for Jewish Incidentally, this is the penheim" instead of communal agencies, and 25 th anniversary of "Oppermann." However tries "to sensitize" both ap- Fe uchtwanger's death. He the American and British pointed and elected officials di ed in Pacific Palisades, editions in 1934 remained "to concerns of the Jewish Ca lif., in 1958 at the age of "The Oppermanns." community." 74 from cancer. .