Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe Page #2

and is on the path to barbarism?

I read the papers as you do,

and I'm tormented.

But we who cannot be radical

should not let ourselves descend to the

intellectual level of our adversaries.

I will not speak out against Germany.

I would never speak out

against any country.

And I'll make no exceptions.

So politics will have to get by

without your voice?

And, by consequence,

also the victims of politics?

The congress will discuss

the function of the writer in society.

What, in your opinion, is his function?

The intellectual

should devote himself to his works.

That is his most powerful tool.

I'm starting to hate politics, because

it's becoming the opposite of justice,

because it betrays the word

with the slogan.

To be an intellectual means to be just,

to summon up an understanding

for one's counterpart and adversaries.

An artist can create works

with political dimensions,

but cannot supply the masses

with political slogans.

My personal artistic strength

derives from the positive.

I can only write for something.

I cannot attack.

I cannot write out of hatred.

And if...

If my silence is a sign of weakness,

I'm afraid I must live with that stigma.

Werfel wrote about

the Armenian Revolt of 1915.

And our current political situation

gives the book an explosiveness

that is frankly

a godsend for its publisher.

I allow myself to say so,

after seeing Werfel's shock

at the fate of the Armenian orphans.

They were the catalyst for that novel.

His book would never have

unfolded such power

if he had used the children

only to write about Adolf Hitler.

Can that book be compared

to your Erasmus of Rotterdam?

I would be pleased if it were.

Today Europe is caught

between fascism and democracy.

Back then, it was divided

by Catholicism and Protestantism.

Erasmus put himself between the two fronts

and tried to unite the world.

And we who believe in a future Europe

should remember that first European,

that ardent advocate of peace.

Even though he failed.

So you believe

that a peaceful Europe is possible?

Yes.

I believe in a free Europe.

I believe that borders and passports

will one day be history.

But I doubt we'll live to experience it.

My pessimism regarding the immediate future

was unfortunately always justified.

I can only invest my hope in

the larger movements that span centuries.

But for me,

and thus unfortunately for you, too,

they will come too late.

I apologize, but Monsieur Zweig is required

at the assembly that is about to begin.

Gentlemen, thank you for listening.

- Thank you.

I'll see you out.

Monsieur Aita, where is...

On the left, the second door.

- Thank you.

Sefior Aita, where is he?

- On his way. He's almost here.

Signore Marinetti, good morning.

- Good morning, Signore Duhamel.

Signore Ungaretti.

- Good morning.

Mr. Brainin.

Dr. Zweig.

I see it as my duty to pressure you.

I am determined not to let you go

before I get a printable condemnation

of the Hitler regime.

Mr. Brainin, we're an ocean away.

And that compels me to remain silent?

I know what is going on in Germany.

You misunderstand me.

You and I are not only far away,

for the moment, we are among the few

who have nothing to fear.

Excuse me. Good morning.

That's why we should avoid polemics.

I will not pass judgment

on the other side of the world

in a room full of like-minded people.

It would be obscene

and meaninglessly fade away.

Every gesture of resistance

which is void of either risk or impact

is nothing but a cry for recognition.

I really have to go now.

I'm still considering that magazine

I told you about in New York.

The best works by contemporary Jews,

scientists, writers...

No polemics, just intellectual quality.

That could be an answer

to the alleged "Aryan superiority".

You think you could fight

a dictatorship like that?

We are really late now.

Heard the latest? The congress won't even

agree to a statement condemning Franco.

Instead it will express its sympathy

to "all the people of Spain".

Isn't that scandalous?

You don't let up, do you?

I came from New York

just for this interview.

I'm Jewish.

So is he.

But it's his voice that counts, not mine.

Next to Thomas Mann,

he is the most read German writer,

yet he refuses to take a stand.

He defends his independence.

His island as an artist.

No, he's a coward.

Self-centered and timid.

Mr. Brainin, you are going too far.

The opposite is true, Mr. Martinez:

You don't go far enough.

There are no islands left.

Do you see what I mean?

There is no independence left.

Hurry up!

- I can't run than quickly.

His island flooded long ago.

And one day soon he'll have to swim

in one direction or the other.

...but perhaps

there are great Nazi writers.

Who are they?

The man who has reached

the top of the new literary hierarchy,

a man named Blunck,

president of the Reich Chamber of Culture,

has just published a book

claiming that the Americas

were not discovered

by a Spaniard or a Genoese,

as you may have assumed until now,

but by a particular Dietrich Penning,

a Dane of Germanic descent.

I'm afraid, you'll have to replace

your lovely Columbus monument

with a monument for Penning now.

But even more exciting is the Jesus issue.

How to avoid the fact that he was a Jew?

Oh, that's easy:

Another German professor,

Franz von Wendrin,

has proven that Jesus was "in fact" Aryan,

and born in Mecklenburg.

You see how degenerate

Kant's descendants have become.

Nearly all of Goethe's books

have been banned from schools.

Can an international writers' congress

remain indifferent to such matters?

The "spoken notion"

is the reason we have all gathered here:

the freedom to think it,

the freedom to express it,

in equality and fraternity for all mankind.

A maxim as simple and as great

as the word "human dignity".

A maxim that every dictatorship denies,

as it would otherwise cease

to be a dictatorship.

Germany, as we all know,

left the PEN's international community

already in November 1933.

I was warned not to mention

that evil word "war".

Again and again,

we writers are being invited

to stay within

this intellectual Garden of Eden.

And yes, I would also prefer to linger

in the blessed discussion

between America and Asia,

as represented here yesterday

by two beautiful ladies.

My compliments, Sefiora Ocampo,

chairwoman of the Argentine PEN Club.

And Madame Sophia Wadia,

delegate from faraway India.

But I must,

to my deep regret,

address you with

more substantial and bitter words:

From one congress to the next,

we witness how

the number of censored countries

is increasing.

Should we be able to

meet again before the war,

this number will have increased again.

Where is the line

between literature and politics?

Is it possible that not all of us

in this convention hall

are of the same opinion about war?

I speak up, because I feel

it is my duty to warn you.

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