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Exile

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin and Antica Productions

Welcome to Exile, a podcast about Jewish lives under the shadow of fascism. Narrated by award-winning screen and stage actor, Joshua Malina. Untold stories and firsthand accounts drawn from intimate letters, diaries and interviews found in the Leo Baeck Institute’s vast archive. Each episode, a story of beauty and danger that brings history to life. Because the past is always present.

Starting February 24, episodes are released weekly every Tuesday.

The Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin is a research library and archive focused on the history of German-speaking Jews.

Antica Productions produces award-winning non-fiction podcasts, films and series which inform and inspire audiences around the world.

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20 episodes
Avg 35 min
English

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S5 · E9
June 9 · 39 min
Behind the scenes of “Exile”
Exile released its first episode in November 2022, but the tale of how it came to be started long before that. On this special episode, we’re pulling back the curtain to tell the story of how this podcast gets made. From its origins in the mind of a dedicated board member, to the months of research and planning to select and shape episodes, to the music and sound effects that bring listeners into a time and place long past, Exile is truly a labor of love. Learn more at lbi.org/exile. This episode is narrated by David Brown, Director of Public History for LBI, New York. It was produced by Laura Regehr. It features contributions from Amy Houston, Stuart Coxe, Frank Mecklenburg, Michael Simonson, Karen Franklin, Renate Evers, Stephanie Ades, Eva Gans, James Dreyfus, Mandy Patinkin, Joshua Malina, Philip Wilson, Emily Morantz, Miriam Bistrovic, and Markus Krah. This episode of Exile is made possible in part by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.
S5 · E8
April 14 · 30 min
Leo Baeck Part 2: The Teacher of Theresienstadt
This is part 2 of the remarkable story of Rabbi Leo Baeck. Trapped in the “model ghetto” of Theriesenstadt, Rabbi Baeck led philosophical discussions that gave a fleeting sense of normalcy to his fellow inmates. But life in the ghetto was harrowing – hygiene was poor, food was scarce, and, as a member of the Jewish Council, Baeck had to make decisions that strained his strong moral principles. Dedicated to protecting his community in whatever way he could, Baeck stayed on at Theriesenstadt until the very end, cementing his role as a powerful symbol of German-Jewish resilience and dignity.
S5 · E7
April 7 · 34 min
Leo Baeck Part 1: The Soft-Spoken Sage
Rabbi Leo Baeck looms large in German-Jewish history, but he began his career as a smalltown rabbi in present-day Poland. Baeck quickly earned a reputation for moral clarity and quiet resolve, even in the face of a powerful opposition. As World War I gave way to the rise of the Nazis, the pressures on German Jewry intensified, and Baeck was thrust into an impossible role: guiding a community through its most dangerous and devastating hour. This is the first chapter of a two-part story.
S5 · E6
March 31 · 41 min
Lion Feuchtwanger: From Moscow to Hollywood
In 1933, German author Lion Feuchtwanger wrote the first ever novel about the experience of Jews under Hitler. The book became a global sensation. When he finally received an offer in 1938 to adapt his most popular book for the screen in Stalin’s Russia, he jumped at the chance. The film was a success, but the decision would come to haunt him when he lived in California during the Red Scare. The Lion Feuchtwanger Collection in the LBI Archives contains a small amount of original correspondence, manuscripts for a translation of Lysistrata, and an essay on the historical consciousness of the Jews. Lion Feuchtwanger also appears in the extensive papers of his brother Ludwig, which are held by the LBI Archives. Learn more at lbi.org/feuchtwanger
S5 · E5
March 24 · 38 min
Growing Up at the Berlin Zoo
In the late 1930s, one of the few places in Berlin that still allowed Jewish visitors was the Zoological Garden, which was established with the support of many Jewish donors. As antisemitic laws took over elsewhere, the Zoo remained a space for community and childhood joy. Eventually, however, even the Zoo would betray the Jews. Sixty years later, one man with fond memories of the zoo realized that an injustice had occurred against his family, and did everything he could to right the wrongs of the past. The James Cohn Collection in the LBI archives documents his father Dr. Werner Cohn’s battle for restitution of his family’s share in the Berlin Zoo, including correspondence with Zoo officials in 2000. The Papers of Gerald M. Friedman, a former Trustee of the LBI, also document his family’s efforts dating back to the 1960s to recover Zoo shares. They include copies of the entire family’s photographic Zoo membership cards. Learn more at lbi.org/zoo
S5 · E4
March 17 · 47 min
Hannah Arendt: Origins of a Controversy
Hannah Arendt’s life was shaped by exile. The German-Jewish thinker was forced to flee Nazi Germany as a young woman, and her experience of statelessness impacted her academic and political pursuits for the rest of her life. Independent and single-minded from an early age, Hannah’s intense commitment to her own moral responsibility carried her through anti-Nazi activism, years of exile, and a controversy that shook up the German-Jewish intellectual world. Hannah Arendt was deeply involved in the early activities of LBI New York after it was founded in 1955. However, her papers are at the Library of Congress and her personal library is at Bard College. One significant collection in the LBI Archives that does bear her name is the “Hannah Arendt Eichmann in Jerusalem Collection”, which holds clippings documenting the furious response to her 1963 book in papers ranging from Aufbau to the Congregation Habonim Bulletin to the New Republic. Another collection of correspondence documents the response of the LBI and other German-Jewish organizations to Eichmann before the book’s publication in German. Learn more at lbi.org/arendt
S5 · E3
March 10 · 39 min
Manfred George’s Aufbau: Reconstructing the News
In 1930s New York, there was only one publication that fully covered the worsening situation for Jews in Europe: the Aufbau. With a daring approach to journalism, editor Manfred George transformed the tiny newsletter of a German-Jewish social club into a lifeline for a worldwide community of refugees. His paper also reported on the atrocities unfolding in Hitler’s Germany long before the mainstream press. The Aufbau held together a community strained past the breaking point, and helped its local readers integrate as Americans. It was a project so successful that it could not last. In addition to the complete run of Aufbau from 1934–2004, which the LBI has digitized and made freely accessible online, our collections include the papers of Norbert and Lilo Goldenberg, the publishers of Aufbau. Learn more at lbi.org/aufbau
S5 · E2
March 3 · 41 min
Hedy Lamarr: Beauty and Brains
In 1937, a young Austrian-Jewish actor named Hedwig Kiesler left Europe to pursue her dream in America. Within months, she became one of the biggest stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood: Hedy Lamarr. Known as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Hedy’s unforgettable face and mysterious allure would take her far in the film industry – but that wasn’t her only success story. In fact, her greatest achievement was an invention that transformed the technology that powers our world. LBI Collections include rich materials on German-speaking Jewish immigrants and refugees in the Hollywood film industry, from Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle to director Ernst Lubitsch to film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold to actors like Peter Lorre and Hedy Lamarr. Learn more at lbi.org/hollywood
S5 · E1
February 24 · 39 min
Vera Haymann’s "Theater in Chains"
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Winnie Meyer-Ricard, the eldest daughter of Vera Haymann and Herbert Meyer-Ricard. After nightfall in German-occupied Amsterdam, a small group of friends risked their lives to engage in a unique form of resistance: puppet theater. Behind the darkened windows of a safe-house, marionettes built by graphic designers Vera Haymann and Herbert Meyer-Ricard acted out biting satires of the bitter circumstances unfolding outside. This “fettered theater” gave the audience a glimmer of hope and solidarity in a time of darkness. The Hermann Haymann Collection in the LBI Archives includes two vivid, hand-illustrated booklets which document Vera Haymann and Herbert Mayer-Ricard’s life in hiding in Amsterdam. See them online at lbi.org/haymann
February 10 · 1 min
Exile: Season 5 is coming soon
Join us for Exile Season 5 – another collection of compelling stories of Jewish lives under the shadow of fascism, drawn from the Leo Baeck Institute’s vast archive. Narrated by critically-acclaimed actor Joshua Malina. Starting February 24, episodes are released every Tuesday. The Leo Baeck Institute is a research library and archive focused on the history of German-speaking Jews. Antica Productions is an award-winning production company based in Toronto that believes in the power of purpose-
Nov 11, 2025 · 36 min
Best of Exile: The Artist Who Made Beauty Out of Destruction
To Samson Schames, art is everything. When fleeing the Nazis lands him in an English internment camp for enemy aliens, he doesn’t let the squalid conditions curb his creativity—in fact, he thrives. Using the debris of destruction as material for his work, Samson cultivates an artistic vision that captures the horrors of war unlike any other. Learn more at www.lbi.org/schames. Exile is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York and Antica Productions. It’s narrated by Mandy Patinkin. Thi
Apr 29, 2025 · 37 min
Best of Exile: “Hopefully It’s Not Too Late By Then"
As we prepare our fifth season of Exile, we’re looking back at our favorite episodes from seasons 1-4. Each re-release brings back a unique, fascinating, and often heart-wrenching story from the Leo Baeck Institute Archives. Robert Bachrach is a buttoned-up doctor and dedicated researcher. Leo Hochner is a bon-vivant and art connoisseur who breeds small dogs. Both bachelors, they are part of a close network of friends from Vienna who are scattered across the globe after the Nazis take power in A
Apr 22, 2025 · 32 min
Best of Exile: Jackie Gerlich - The Road From Vienna to Oz
As we prepare our fifth season of Exile, we’re looking back at our favorite episodes from seasons 1-4. Each re-release brings back a unique, fascinating, and often heart-wrenching story from the Leo Baeck Institute Archives. Leo Fuks is a born performer. So when, in 1936, a vaudeville impresario shows up to recruit him, 10-year-old Leo is more than happy to join his troupe, and his parents reluctantly agree. As Leo, now known as Jackie Gerlich, travels the world and dips his toes into Hollywood,
Apr 15, 2025 · 45 min
Best of Exile: Before Dr. Ruth
As we prepare our fifth season of Exile, we’re looking back at our favorite episodes from seasons 1-4. Each re-release brings back a unique, fascinating, and often heart-wrenching story from the Leo Baeck Institute Archives. Known for her candid talk and blunt advice about sex, Dr. Ruth Westheimer is the world’s most renowned psychosexual therapist. But beneath her joyful demeanor is a chaotic story about her youth—a girl named Karola Ruth Siegel left orphaned and stateless. How does she harness
Apr 8, 2025 · 36 min
Best of Exile: Love in the Time of Fascism
As we prepare our fifth season of Exile, we’re looking back at our favorite episodes from seasons 1-4. Each re-release brings back a unique, fascinating, and often heart-wrenching story from the Leo Baeck Institute Archives. In Nazi-occupied Austria, a young man named Kurt Kleinmann comes up with a plan to escape: write to Americans - strangers - who share his last name and ask for help to get a visa. Just as he begins to lose hope, he gets a response from New Yorker Helen Kleinman. Little does
Apr 1, 2025 · 31 min
Best of Exile: Summer in Caputh
As we prepare our fifth season of Exile, we’re looking back at our favorite episodes from seasons 1-4. Each re-release brings back a unique, fascinating, and often heart-wrenching story from the Leo Baeck Institute Archives. At the height of his fame, a shirtless, barefooted Albert Einstein escapes the bustle of Berlin for a simpler life. The best thinkers of the time gather at his beloved summer house in Caputh to laze by the water, swap ideas, and gossip. There, he can escape the pressures of
Mar 25, 2025 · 40 min
Best of Exile: Librarian Turned Spy
As we prepare our fifth season of Exile, we’re looking back at our favorite episodes from seasons 1-4. Each re-release brings back a unique, fascinating, and often heart-wrenching story from the Leo Baeck Institute Archives. A young, Jewish librarian in New York named Florence Mendheim risks her life to spy on the growing Nazi movement in America. She passes herself off as a Nazi sympathizer, documenting the movement’s nefarious activities. Everything is on the line—her family, her work and her
S4 · E6
Feb 25, 2025 · 39 min
Episode 24: Breaking Atoms, Breaking Barriers
At the dawn of the 1930s, Germany is a physics powerhouse, where great minds like Albert Einstein and Max Planck have revolutionized the scientific landscape. But a talented young physicist named Trude Goldhaber struggles to make her voice heard in a male-dominated field. Trude perseveres, despite the pressures of antisemitism and misogyny all around her. Forced to work in the shadow of her scientist husband, she contributes to research and discoveries that help create the most dangerous weapon
S4 · E5
Feb 18, 2025 · 33 min
Episode 23: Song of Resistance
For Karl Adler, there is nothing more powerful than music. While recovering from an injury sustained as a soldier in World War I, Karl pursues his goal of changing the way music is taught in Germany. And for a while, he’s successful – until a former student (and member of Hitler’s Brownshirts) falsely reports him for sexual harassment. Forced to start over, Karl devotes himself to creating a new cultural association for German Jews. As antisemitic laws take hold and Jews begin to flee Germany en
S4 · E4
Feb 11, 2025 · 31 min
Episode 22: Simson & Co: A Family Forged in Steel
The Simson family business has been manufacturing everything from firearms to vehicles for decades. But when the Nazis take over, they’re not happy to learn that a Jewish family is supplying weapons to the German army. After a new law forces the Simsons to relinquish their company to the Nazis, the family flees to the United States. Fifty years later, a Simson descendent makes his way back to Germany – and finds out what became of the business empire his family once led. The LBI Archives hold m

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