Prisoner of Paradise

A week or so ago, I watched on Netflix a documentary called Rise of the Double Eagle about Hitler's political emergence prior to January 1933.  Netflix (which except for sports is about all the justifies a TV set anymore) will present you with a list if selections similar to your recent viewings, and I periodically scan these lists to see what the software might have gathered.   Tonight I scanned the list generated by my viewing of the above documentary and was stopped by the haunting image of a man named Kurt Gerron.  The film is called Prisoner of Paradise.  

Kurt Gerron was a German actor and film director in Wiemar Germany.  He was quite famous in his day, but he was also Jewish.  After Hitler's ascent to power, he quickly lost the ability to work.  He left Germany and bounced around Europe, until he finally settled in Holland.  He was there in the Spring of 1940 when Hitler invaded.  Eventually he was transported to Theresienstadt.  Because he was a capable film director, he was forced by the Germans to make a propaganda film conveying a Potemkim image of life in Theresienstadt.  The film was never completed.  

I will not burden you with details, but only recommend Prisoner of Paradise for your consideration.  It haunts you with the happy images of people who will within a matter of weeks be sent to Auschwitz.  Almost everyone seen in the picture will eventually die at that place.  But there was one particular moment that remains with me.  Soon after he left Germany, Kurt Gerron helped a struggling penniless actor named Peter Lorre raise money to go to Hollywood.  When Gerron was in Holland, Lorre - by now established and worried about events in Europe - sought to return the favor and found work for Gerron in the United States.  Gerron agreed to come but wanted the Movie company to pay for First Class Travel.  The Movie company refused.  Gerron therefore declined the position, and stayed in Holland.  It is sobering to think that upon such a decision could hang the difference between life and death.

In October 1944, Kurt Gerron was loaded on the last train from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz.  He was killed on 28 October 1944.  Aged 47 years, six months.