declared the past few weeks a 'mini festival' of German culture in Los

Angeles. Judge for yourself: a week ago I went to a screening of the

new documentary, Shadows in Paradise, a fascinating story of German

émigré musicians, writers, and filmmakers who fled the Nazis and

settled here in LA. Some of them flourished; others merely managed; a

few committed suicide. Never before have so many of the best and

brightest creative minds of one country either left on their own or

been forced to emigrate, and what's especially unusual is that most of

these people ended up here in LA. The impact of this German-exile

community on the cultural life of our city was profound...