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Episode 7: Love in the Time of Fascism

The Story of Kurt & Helen Kleinman(n)

Kurt Kleinman
Photograph of Kurt Kleinman. From the Kurt and Helen Kleinman Collection, 1917-1998, AR 10738, box 1, folder 4, Leo Baeck Institute.

In Nazi-occupied Austria, a young man named Kurt Kleinmann comes up with a plan to escape: write to Americans – strangers – who share his last name and ask for help to get a visa. Just as he begins to lose hope, he gets a response from New Yorker Helen Kleinman. Little does he know, Helen will save his life…and capture his heart.

Exile is a production of LBI New York | Berlin and Antica Productions.

It’s narrated by Mandy Patinkin.

Executive Producers include Katrina Onstad, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Senior Producer is Debbie Pacheco. Produced by Emily Morantz. Associate Producer is Hailey Choi. Research and translation by Isabella Kempf. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson, with help from Cameron McIver. Theme music by Oliver Wickham. Voice acting by Heather Hedley and David Walpole.

Special thanks to Len and Joanne Deutchman and the whole Kleinman(n) family, and to Soundtrack New York.

Want more about Kurt and Helen Kleinman(n)?

The Kurt and Helen Kleinmann Collection in the Leo Baeck Institute Archives includes Helen and Kurt’s entire correspondence - hundreds of letters - from 1938 and 1939, plus telegrams and other material documenting Kurt’s emigration.

Kleinman telegram