A lot of people wanted desperately to leave Europe in 1941. The Russian revolutionary and writer Victor Serge was one of them. Serge had lived in Belgium and France since fleeing Stalinist persecution in 1936. While in exile, Serge maintained correspondence with the radical dissidents who had previously coalesced around the Left Opposition — including Leon Trotsky and his son Lev Sedov.

After the Nazi invasion of France, Serge hurriedly prepared to flee the continent, ultimately finding a spot aboard a ship headed to Mexico. Among his traveling companions were the pioneering anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss and the Surrealist Andre Bréton, who booked passage on the same ship. Serge ultimately made it to his new country in 1942.

In Mexico, he threw himself into organizing against the Stalinization of the international socialist movement. But he was distracted. Serge’s partner Laurette Séjourné, as well as his daughter Jeannine, had stayed behind in Europe.