Edgar Feuchtwanger
The Feuchtwanger family was a fixture in German life for four hundred years prior to the arrival of Adolph Hitler.
Edgar’s father Ludwig was a successful publisher and Lion was the prominent author of JEW SUSS and the 1930 SUCCESS, in which he mocks Hitler as Rupert Kutzner, a garage mechanic with a gift for gab. The fuhrer was not pleased and Lion earned his eternal enmity. Fortunately he was out of the country on a book tour.
In HITLER, MY NEIGHBOR, co-written with the Bertil Scali, Edgar recalls the years from 1929-1939, when as a child he lived across the street from Hitler.
We met at the Maison Heinrich Heine on the campus of Cité Universitaire in Paris, where Edgar was participating in the conference FRANCE AS A HOST COUNTRY FOR IMMIGRANTS BETWEEN 1933 AND 1940.
Did you keep a diary as a child?
No, but I still have school books that are striking record of what occurred in the Nazi period. I still have them.
It took you a long time to get around to writing this book.What was the motivation to finally write this book?
My children wanted to know what happened and how I saw it. I have a son Adrian, who is a German translator and two daughters, one a politician in London and one a banker. They were all born in England, as was my wife.
Why did you start each chapter with a quote from Mein Kampf?
I didn’t. It was Bertil's choice to set a tone and timeline. It was in the bookstores at the time but a local bookseller told us that JEW SUSS was a better seller. I knew that it said bad things about Hitler and I also know that our neighbor is a dangerous man.
When did you first read Mein Kampf?
I never read it. My Uncle Lion did. The five year-old Edgar describes him as" a writer who makes up stories for grown ups." Of course, as people of pen and paper, the family was extremely well read.
When did you first have thoughts of preferring to not be Jewish?
We are under attack and it wasn’t a good thing to be a Jew. I might have thought that. When you are a child you want to be like everybody else.
You had two "good: Germans in your life-Rosie and Aunt Bobbie (not your real Aunt-she lived upstairs). There seemed to be no distinction about your being Jewish. Talk about them.
Rosie was one of the maids. One had to have a close relationship with one’s nanny. The servants and maids were good Bavarian Catholic girls. Not aggressively so. They came into the big city, Munich, looking for jobs.
(Bobbie) Heckleman was the closest to me. I was sitting on her lap as a child. I can remember her throat.
You seemed to be very interested in ladies. The dentist that you shared with Hotel had an assistant that you reminded you Marlene Dietrich with her red lips. You seemed very sensual as a child.
EF: Perhaps. Bertil blushes and Edgar laughs.
When did you first feel endangered as a Jew?
I can’t remember the first time. It was an ongoing thing. Kristallnacht was of course, traumatic. Our home was ransacked by the Gestapo and my father was taken to Dachau but returned after six weeks.
When was the first time you saw Hitler and what was your reaction?
I was as close to him as I am to you. I was being taken for a walk by Rosie and just as we passed his front door. He came out wearing a Macintosh and a Trilby hat. People were shouting Heil Hitler and he tipped his hat and then looked at me quite benevolently. The amazing thing is he never found out that we were closely related to a man (Lion Feuchtwanger) who was his personal enemy. Right under his nose and he never found out. It wasn't so much the Jewish thing at that time (1933) he hadn't gotten around to the Jews yet. Amazing.
Going back to Hitler for a moment. You talk about his piercing blue eyes. Was there anything about him that struck you as remarkable or was he just an ordinary man?
Apart from that moustache, not really. I do remember him returning from Vienna after the Anschluss, standing up in his car, holding on to the windscreen.
It strikes me that in many respects you were enormously lucky. Your father was able to get you out and on to England and follow with your mother shortly thereafter. With the exception of one relative, everyone survived and you were welcomed in England by a very kind family.
You weren't part of the kindertransport, were you?
No, the circumstances were quite different.
Bertil- How did you get involved in this project ?
It was 1994 and I read a small article in the Independent written by Edgar, saying that he was Hitler’s Jewish neighbour. I called the newspaper and they gave me his phone number and we made an appointment. I was sure that in the coming weeks there would be many articles in magazines and newspapers and I was surprised that when I went to his house there were none. So I did one big piece in a French magazine called VSD (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and again I thought there would be TV reports and that an American producer would call to make a movie, but again, nothing.
I spoke to French publishers and that said: “Well, is there anything new about Hitler?” Nobody was interested. So we stayed in contact and about 15 years later and I still thought there was book but no publisher was interested but on said: “Why don’t you do it?” So I called Edgar and we did it.
Describe the process.
We talked on SKYPE over a period of one year, talking , writing, sending chapters.
It was first published in French and then in 11 countries but still no English publisher was interested until Edgar spoke at in conference in New York at the 92nd Street Y and the New York Times published an article. A French speaking American publisher (Other Press) was able to buy it on Kindle and she bought the US rights. It’s a very long story (lot’s of laughter.)
You’ve also made a movie.
Yes, I made a documentary. We went to Munich together, the apartment, his school. It’s on Netflix
