In March 1938, Austria was incorporated into National-Socialist Germany in the so-called “Anschluss”. In remembrance of this event and its fatal consequences, the film presents 16 eminent Austrian-born US American and British scholars, who share their life stories after they managed to escape Nazi persecution as children in Austria. Among them are the literary scholar Ruth Klüger, the chemist Martin Karplus, the physicist and historian of science Gerald Holton, and the neuroscientist Eric Kandel. All scholars interviewed had a lasting effect on their fields of research, some of them having been awarded a Nobel Prize.
The film sheds light on the lives and fates of people expelled in 1938 as children, providing insight into the experience of flight and displacement. It was produced by the Austrian historians Heidemarie Uhl and Johannes Feichtinger, together with the British film-maker Frederick Baker, based on an idea by the Austrian quantum physicist and President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Anton Zeilinger.
Several interviewees, as well as Anton Zeilinger, will be presenting for the showing. All guests are welcome to join the reception after the event in the CES Atrium.
Anton Zeilinger, Quantum physicist and president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria © Joseph Krpelan
Physicist and Nobel Laureate Walter Kohn in the garden of his house in Santa Barbara, CA, during the interview for the film „Exile & Excellence“ © Johannes Feichtinger“
