Kurt Gerron

German actor and film director (born 11 May 1897 in Berlin, Germany and murdered around 30 October 1944 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp). After being wounded in World War I, Gerron studied medicine and finished the war serving as a physician in a military hospital. After the war, he switched careers and turned to acting in revues and cabarets. From 1920, he also acted in movies. One of his greatest theatrical successes was the role of the police chief Tiger Brown in Bertolt Brecht's "Dreigroschenoper" (premiered in 1928), where he sang both the "Moritat von Mackie Messer" and the "Kanonensong." In 1930, he acted in two important German movie classics, as magician Kiepert in "Der Blaue Engel" and as lawyer Dr. Kalmus in "Die Drei von der Tankstelle." Starting in 1926, he also began directing movies, including "Es wird schon wieder besser" with Heinz Rühmann and "Der weiße Dämon" with Hans Albers. Gerron recorded several of his successful songs, including the "Moritat" and the "Kanonensong", on Ultraphon and Electrola. The Nazis forced Gerron to flee with his wife and parents first to Paris, then to Vienna, and finally to Den Haag, where he continued to direct films until the Germans occupied the Netherlands. In 1943, Gerron and his family were sent to the deportation camp Westerbork. From there, they were deported to the Terezín / Theresienstadt concentration camp in late February 1944. In August 1944, as a Theresienstadt inmate, Gerron was selected to direct the Nazi propaganda film "Theresienstadt" a.k.a. "The Führer Gives a City to the Jews". Before he could conclude editing the project, he and the entire cast were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp on October 28, 1944, where they were murdered.