Young Jewish Theresienstadt prisoners used as actors in Hitler’s staged propaganda film
It’s surreal today to see the images from Hitler’s propaganda film, Der Fuehrer Schenkt den Juden eine Stadt (The Fuhrer gives the Jews a City). It’s haunting to see the bizarre the lengths he went to in order to create such an elaborate hoax to try and cover up the horrors of his Final Solution.
The SS, wanting to exploit the beautification efforts undertaken at Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, in preparation for a Red Cross visit in June of 1944, produced this film to use in Germany to show the “pleasant life of Jews” in a town that was “generously given” to them by the Nazi regime. In early 1944 a Prague documentary filmmaking firm was hired to make the movie, with all workers under the strict control of the SS, forced to sign a statement that any disclosure to outsiders would result in reprisals against them and their families.
Promised freedom in exchange for his service, Kurt Gerron, a native Berliner and Theresienstadt inmate and former cabaret actor, was assigned the role of producer and director. Prisoners were forced to serve as members of the cast.
Kurt Gerron, director
Gerron, a native Berliner had been offered asylum by Peter Lorre and other German expatriates in Hollywood. They had offered to pay his travel expenses, but Gerron refused their offers, saying the ship accommodations were not first class. He was later deported to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, located in occupied Czechoslovakia.
Gerron co-starred with Marlene Dietrich
Gerron on set
Filmed in the courtyard of the Dresden barracks in the Theresienstadt ghetto, spectators at a staged soccer game
Staged portrait of a young Jewish woman reading a book.
The propoganda film shows contented workers making pottery and handbags, children eating sandwiches and well-dressed adults attending concerts and lectures. All this to cheerful background music.
The Stab Garten work brigade tending “their garden,” staged for the film, greatly increased in size.
Jewish prisoners in staged audience in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
Staged street scene
Wood shop for the film
Brundibar, play staged for the benefit of visiting Red Cross
A special performance of Brundibar, a children’s opera written by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása who was deported to Theresienstadt, was staged for the Red Cross visit. Later, footage of Brundibar was included in The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City.
The film was shot in August and September, 1944, but not completed until March 1945, when the documentary was seized by the Nazis. The participants of the film were sent to Auschwitz as soon as filming was completed, in October 1944. Most were gassed upon arrival including the children, the composer Krása, director Gerron and the musicians, killed one day before Himmler gave the order to shut down the gas chambers for good.
Read the whole story here:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/gerron.html
http://digitalassets.ushmm.org/photoarchives/detail.aspx?id=1144018
