Alma and Franz Werfel flew Vienna in 1938 for France when Austria fell to the German army. In 1940, the Werfels along with Heinrich Mann flew by foot over the rugged Pyrenees to Spain, ultimately leaving Europe for the United States on board the New Hellas, the last regular ship from Lisbon. In Lisbon, Alma Mahler-Werfel spent probably the most challenging and decisive months of her life.

Lisbon meant rescue for her. "I can never forget those days of paradisiacal peace in a paradisiacal country, after the torment of the previous months!”, Alma wrote in her autobiography. There's no country which helped as many refugees as Portugal in those days. The small country became a transition for many well known refugees such as Heinrich Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger and Franz Werfel.

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