March 30, 1937.

Dear Jawaharlal Nehru: –

Months have passed since I wrote you last. I sincerely hope that this letter finds you enjoying the best of health.

I have followed your life and your work with deep interest and attention. Some of the American magazines and newspapers report on conditions in India objectively and adequately.

I came to the United States at the beginning of October for a lecture tour the purpose of which was to lecture against Hitler and the Nazi system, but not only against Hitler’s domestic policy, his persecutions and suppression of minorities, liberals and socialists, but also against his foreign policy, which threatens the peace of the world. Naturally I also spoke about Hitler’s part in connection with the preparation of the Franco rebellion in Spain and support of the same. I travelled all over America and spoke before the different social strata in mass meetings, at universities, women’s clubs, authors and journalists, over the radio, etc.

The lecture tour extended over a period of three months. It happened frequently that I spoke twice daily, on one day even four times. Since I know your kind interest in my work, I am taking the liberty of sending you enclosed some clippings dealing with my lectures.

A quite unexpected and most interesting aspect is the sympathy shown by the general public and by the film artists in Hollywood, from whom it was not anticipated.

Hollywood has a very influential Anti-Nazi League, which counts among its members many of the most important film producers, film writers and film stars.

At the conclusion of the tour I returned to Hollywood and at the present moment am writing the Lola Montez film for Metro Goldwyn Mayer. (Lola Montez is that peculiar Irish girl, daughter of an officer, who spent her youth in India, later on appeared as a “Spanish dancer” in London and then became the friend of King Ludwig I. of Bavaria. She it was who influenced this monarch’s politics for many years most decisively, until the time of that rather comic Munich rebellion in 1848, which ended with her banishment and the King’s abdication. Strange as history often is, it was this Lola Montez who was the mouthpiece of freedom at the time of European reaction).

After my work is finished here I shall return to New York where two of my plays will be produced. Both will be printed in book form and it will give me great pleasure to send them to you, as soon as they appear. – –

America has undergone a tremendous change since I was here last in 1929. The great economic crisis has influenced the people, particularly the youth of the country deeply. In place of banal optimism, with its idolatry of the Dollar, one notices now a deep spiritual unrest, an inclination toward the real social problems and a desire for truth in the social sphere as well as in art.

Furthermore America seems to me to be the only country that has learned its lesson most rapidly from Fascism.

A large proportion of the population has become “freedom-conscious” and in the election of Roosevelt the issue for or against freedom was at stake.

I hope to see Roosevelt next month; he is one of the significant personalities in American history.

When I shall return to England, I do not know at the present moment. For the time being I shall remain in America.

You are presumably informed as well about European affairs as I am. Undoubtedly we are in the midst of a European war. For the time being regiments and divisions of the individual countries are fighting. It is only a question of time before the armies will get into action. The conflict between England and Italy is becoming greater all the time and it is my opinion that Mussolini’s combination with Hitler is governed by his anti-British ideology. Sometimes it looks as though the war would begin with a partial war between England and Italy and not with a partial war between Hitler and Soviet Russia.

In the Spanish question the democracies have, for economic reasons, committed an error, which a later world will hardly understand. Instead of realizing immediately what would be the consequences for the European situation of a victory of Franco and his fascist-nazi friends, they declared themselves “neutral” and thereby only aggravated the precarious condition of European democracies. Let us hope that the intervention of the democracies in this episode, as is the case in so many episodes of the past, will not bear the motto: “too late!”

Are there fascist movements in India? Are the Nazis trying to gain influence by propaganda there also?

What news have you of your daughter? Is she still in London?

Please accept my kindest regards and best wishes.

Yours ever,

Ernst Toller

P. S. I got a letter from S. B. Shastri, Mahal, Nagpur, of which I enclose copy. Do you know Mr. Shastri? I am very happy that one of my books will appear in the Indian language. Is the Marathi language a very well-known one in India?