Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe
Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe

Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe

Before Dawn charts the years of exile in the life of famous Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, his inner struggle for the "right attitude" towards the events in war torn Europe and his search for a new home.

badelf@badelf

January 19, 2024

"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."

Stefan Zweig, a brilliant and poetic writer, was exiled from Germany because he was Jewish. He spent his exile trying to navigate the labyrinth between politics and justice. That journey crushed him.

How ironic that, at the time I watch this film, the USA is on same cusp as that of 1930s Germany. On the verge of potentially electing an authoritarian racist egomaniac that will tear down the republic that has served the country for 200 years.