Show Notes
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 masse, Karl continues to connect people through music – even as the world falls apart around him. The Karl Adler collection at LBI documents his entire career, including his engagement at the Royal Court Opera of Wurttemberg, his WWI service, and his work with the Conservatory and the Jewish Culture League in Stuttgart. Records of the Jüdische Mittelstelle show Adler intervening with the Gestapo on behalf of Jewish families seeking news of their husbands and fathers who had disappeared or been arrested. A folder of materials he collected about the Jewish history of Buttenhausen includes a photograph of Adler, his voice raised in song, at the dedication of his native town’s Holocaust memorial in 1961. Learn more at lbi.org/adler. Exile is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York and Antica Productions. It’s narrated by Mandy Patinkin. This episode was written by Nadia Mehdi. Our executive producers are Laura Regehr, Rami Tzabar, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Our producer is Emily Morantz. Research and translation by Isabella Kempf. Voice acting by Cyrus Lane and David Walpole. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson. Theme music by Oliver Wickham. Please consider supporting the work of the Leo Baeck Institute with a tax-deductible contribution by visiting lbi.org/exile2025. 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.
More from 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.
This is part 2 of the remarkable story of Rabbi Leo Baeck.
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.
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.
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.