On Sunday morning, March 20, 1933, Landau waited in the audience of the Berlin Philharmonic for the conductor Bruno Walter to arrive for the scheduled performance. With her personal connection to the conductor, Landau had reason to be alarmed by the delay: “Bruno Walter was never late, but on that morning we waited and waited, we began to worry.” Landau would never forget what happened next: “After almost one hour of waiting the side door opened to the stage and without any word of explanation Richard Strauss walked out on the stage and took over.” Strauss, the prominent German composer, would conduct in Walter's place. During the intermission Landau watched as some exited. She understood their early departure as protest. At the end Strauss simply bowed and left. Those who remained did not applaud. They knew what had happened, what this meant. Walter was Jewish. Walter was out.

Walter had been conducting in the United States when Adolf Hitler was officially appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Hitler's party, the National Socialist German Worker's Party, or NSDAP, continued to grow in power during the early months of 1933. With the burning of the Reichstag on February 27, Hitler imposed a state of emergency to demolish parliamentary government. Despite the alarming political changes, Walter returned to Germany to conduct his regular schedule of March concerts. Once home he saw the swastikas flying high across Germany and was repulsed. He decided to avoid any restaurant with that hateful flag. But the plan didn't last long. It couldn't if he wanted to eat.

In Leipzig Walter found out that the first of his concerts had been cancelled. The Gewandhaus had changed, seemingly overnight; only three years later the hall's statue of Felix Mendelssohn would disappear, reinforcing the composer's musical ban under the Nazis. Germany's new leadership had turned its attention early to musical matters. Composers with Jewish roots, dead or alive, were no longer welcome onstage. Walter found himself in a similar position. Quietly he said his good-byes and went on to Berlin.

In the capital Walter was hopeful that he might still be able to direct his next concert. Berlin had not initially been a Nazi stronghold.