Magazine advertisement for the film “So Ends Our Night” (1941)

Magazine advertisement for the American feature film, “So Ends Our Night,” released in the United States in February 1941, and re-released in 1948. “So Ends Our Night” was an independently produced adaptation of the 1939 novel, “Flotsam,” by Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque was a German veteran of World War I, who became famous for writing “All Quiet on the Western Front” about war and the experiences of German soldiers. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Remarque’s works were deemed “unpatriotic” and banned. He fled for Switzerland, had his German citizenship revoked in 1938, and immigrated to the United States just before the start of World War II. “So Ends Our Night” begins in 1937 and focuses on three German refugees, whose paths cross on multiple occasions as they move throughout Western Europe to flee Nazi persecution. It highlights the predicament of (largely Jewish) refugees who are unable to obtain the legal documentation needed to enter or settle in free countries. It was one of the first Hollywood film to focus on the experiences of refugees. Despite a revised marketing campaign, the film was widely viewed as too solemn, slow, and lacking in drama. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.