Brigitte Alexander

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Brigitte Alexander , née Kaufmann, (born October 9, 1911 in Stuttgart ; † May 10, 1995 in Mexico City ) was a German - Mexican author , actress , director and translator .

Life

Brigitte Kaufmann grew up as the daughter of wealthy parents in Stuttgart until after the end of the First World War . The family was considered assimilated and did not follow any Jewish traditions. After the war ended, the family moved to Berlin-Steglitz , as the father had been transferred to Berlin as a coal commissioner . Her father later became director of BEWAG . The social democrat supported the Weimar Republic . In order to offer the daughter protection from anti-Semitic attacks, the parents had Brigitte Kaufmann baptized as a Christian. As a youth she was involved in the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ). With the aim of becoming a youth judge , she studied law in Frankfurt am Main and Freiburg im Breisgau .

Flight and Exile

After Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor of the Reich , Brigitte Kaufmann decided to go on a skiing holiday with her fiancé to Austria in the hope that the "ghost" would not last long . On the way there, she learned about the Reichstag fire through the press and by telephone that her father had been arrested. Penniless, the couple fled to Lausanne , Switzerland, to a former tutor of Brigitte Kaufmann. Her non-Jewish fiancé traveled back to Germany. The Kaufmann family fled to France via Switzerland. Brigitte Kaufmann found work as a waitress and later in the administration of a lung sanatorium. When the Swiss authorities discovered that she did not have a work permit , she was expelled from the country.

Exile in France

Brigitte Kaufmann followed her family to Paris and found a job in the administration of a shoe factory. Politically it organized itself in the Popular Front against Fascism . In the House of Culture on Place Vendôme , just a short distance from her place of work, she met comrades such as the artists Jean Louis Barrault , Pierre Abrahan and Jan Doat and became a co-founder of the avant-garde theater group The Kolibri . After the annexation of Austria , she worked as a secretary and translator for the Rothschild family, bringing Austrian children whose parents had to flee to safety in France.

While her parents fled to England in 1934/35, Brigitte met the electronics engineer Alfred Alexander-Katz in Paris. They married on July 25, 1939 at a collective wedding. Out of sheer excitement, she forgot to say “I do” (Schätte).

After France declared war on Germany in response to the invasion of Poland , numerous German emigrants were interned. Alfred Alexander-Katz was imprisoned as an "enemy foreigner" in a transit camp and faced with the alternative of forced labor or joining the Foreign Legion , whereupon he decided to join the Foreign Legion. He was commanded to Africa.

Brigitte Alexander escaped internment as a pregnant woman . Their son Didier was born on April 23, 1940. On June 10, 1940, shortly before the Germans marched into Paris, she managed to escape by train to southern France under difficult conditions. Since she was expatriated as an emigrant, she did not have a passport, but only a protégée française . She got to Biarritz , which was under German control , which made her stay unsafe. In the meantime, a relative brought her to a small town. Eventually she managed to escape to a refugee center in Lourdes , where the malnourished mother and the child found support from nuns .

After the Foreign Legion was dissolved, her husband was again interned in France. In Clermont-Ferrand , Brigitte Kaufmann managed to borrow 5000 francs, which she used to release her husband from the authorities.

In Clermont-Ferrand the married couple were registered like all Jewish people, but lived relatively free from persecution for a while. As an electronics engineer , her husband found work in a radio factory. Brigitte Alexander joined a theater group as Brigitte Châtel and went on tour in the unoccupied areas with a play by Racine . She kept her stage name until 1956.

In the winter of 1941/42 Albert Einstein enabled the family to obtain a visa for Mexico. Like around 2000 other German refugees, they received political asylum there .

Exile in Mexico

Via Marseille , Casablanca and Jamaica they reached the Mexican port of Veracruz with around 800 Jewish passengers on April 15, 1942 on the Portuguese steamer Sao Fomé . The visas of 36 passengers, including those of the Alexander family and the Berlin photographer Walter Reuter , were initially not recognized. Only the commitment of Heinrich Gutmann and Erwin Friedeberg from the Liga Pro Cultura Alemana brought about a mediation with the authorities and prevented their repatriation.

After a difficult start for the family, Brigitte Alexander gained a new theatrical engagement in the comedy La familia cena en casa through the acquaintance of Rodolfo Usigli . Participation in André Moreau's French theater group soon followed . After a tour with the group, she made contact with the Heinrich Heine Club and other political emigrants in Mexico.

The editor of the first stories and plays in Germany, Ulrike Schätte, wrote about Alexander's situation in Mexico:

“In their new country of exile, the Alexander family is no longer exposed to the fear of extradition and restrictions. But the economic struggle for survival is difficult, especially after the early death of Alfred Alexander, who leaves Brigitte Alexander alone with three young children. In A Man Called Alfred Brigitte Alexander sets a loving literary monument to her deceased husband Alfred Alexander as father and husband ”. ... "In A child is born she deals with the racism of the white Mexican upper class."

Works

  • The return. Stories and plays from exile . Translated from the Spanish by Theo Bruns, Renata von Hanffstengel, Andrea Sevilla von Hanffstengel. trafo verlag Berlin 2005. Ed. by Ulrike Schätte. ISBN 3-89626-522-9
  • El retorno (con una posfación de Ulrike Schätte), in: Stefano, Giovanni di / Peters, Michaela (ed.): México com punto de fuga real o imaginario. Munich: Meidenbauer, 301–304. ISBN 978-3-89975-257-1

literature

  • Ulrike Schättes foreword and epilogue in: Brigitte Alexander: The return. Stories and plays from exile .
  • Schatte, Ulrike (2011): "Brigitte Alexander: Vivir entre dos mundos", in: Stefano, Giovanni di / Peters, Michaela (ed.): México com punto de fuga real o imaginario . Munich: Meidenbauer, 285–299. ISBN 978-3-89975-257-1

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Alexander, Brigitte
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaufmann, Brigitte (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Mexican writer, theater actress, theater director and translator
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1995
Place of death Mexico city