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Screenwriter for Garbo, savior for exiles fleeing Hitler

JL;DR SUMMARY Salka Viertel, a screenwriter best known for her collaboration with Greta Garbo, emerges as a pivotal figure in the Hollywood exile community during the Nazi regime. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

HollywoodJewish RefugeesNazi RegimeCultural IntegrationWeimar RepublicFilm HistoryScreenwritingSalka ViertelGreta GarboEuropean Exiles

Places mentioned

Berlin, Germany
"Imagine this alternate history of movies: Had Hitler not become a political force during the 1920s and 1930s, Berlin rather than Hollywood could have been the epicenter of film."
Los Angeles, California, United States
"Viertels employment at MGM supported both her family and, by 1936, her unofficial ambassadorship to Hollywoods mushrooming immigrant community."
Vienna, Austria
"her father was mayor. In 1918, at the age of 29, she wed Austrian poet and theater director Berthold Viertel."
Santa Monica, California, United States
"Their Weimar-on-the-Pacific, where they congregated on Sundays to celebrate their collective escape, mourn their loss of homeland and identity, and enjoy in German and English the pleasure of each others company (not to mention the strudel and chocolate torte), was 165 North Mabery in Santa Monica."
Ukraine
"She was born Salomea Steuermann to prosperous (if not observant) Jews in Galicia (present-day Ukraine) when it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire."
Klosters, Graubünden, Switzerland
"Salka then moved to Klosters, Switzerland to be near Christina and Peter, who helped support his mother as she wrote her memoirs, published in 1969."

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Retrieved 2026-03-06 05:31:37 UTC
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