Max Ehrlich
Encyclopedia
Max Michaelis Ehrlich was a German
actor
, screenwriter
, and director on the German theater, comedy and cabaret scene of the 1930s.
productions, the Haller-Revue, and other cabarets as well as stage groups. Also to his credit: forty-two movies, ten of which he directed, eight records, including chansons, operetta
, comedy sketches and character imitations; numerous publications, amongst which his best selling book From Adelbert to Zilzer, a humorous collection of stories and anecdotes about sixty-two of his best known show business
friends and colleagues.
colleagues from working in Germany. As a result, he left for Vienna
to appear with the Rudolf Nelson Revue. However, there too, Austrian anti-Semites interrupted the show with cries of "Jews get out of Vienna". Consequently, the troupe left for The Netherlands, stopping en route for stage appearances in Switzerland.
In 1935, homesick for his native land, Ehrlich returned to Nazi Germany
. Jewish entertainers were permitted to perform there, but only within the framework of the Jüdischer Kulturbund
(Jewish Cultural Union) and exclusively in front of Jewish audiences. Ehrlich was named director of the Kulturbund's light theatre departments. However, following the 1938 pogrom
"Kristallnacht
", he decided to leave Germany for good. Both of his farewell performances immediately sold out, so that a third presentation on 2 April 1939 was added. Here, in front of a full house of fans, calling out their affection and encouragement, Ehrlich made his final appearance in Germany.
, Erich Ziegler, Camilla Spira
, and Kurt Gerron
; or well-known Dutch performers, like Esther Philipse, Jetty Cantor, and Johnny & Jones. At its high point, the group counted fifty-one members, including a full team of musicians, dancers, choreographers, artists, tailors, make-up, lighting and other technicians, as well as stage hands.
Most of the shows combined elements of revue and cabaret –songs and sketches– but, on one occasion, the program included a revue-operetta, Ludmilla, or Corpses Everywhere—a production whose theme sadly was a pre-sentiment of the actors' and other prisoners' fate. While some scenes were implicitly critical, of course, the Theatre Group at no time produced openly political cabaret or directly attacked the Nazi
regime. To do so would have violated the most fundamental condition for the troupe's and its members' survival, as life in Westerbork was dominated by the persistent threat of deportation
on the next transport to an unknown but deeply feared fate in the East. So, standing helplessly and unaided before the fascists
' executioners and their lackeys, the Theatre Group, of necessity, limited itself to entertaining its audiences and to momentarily distracting them from the surrounding horrors. But in so doing, it also gave their captive audiences renewed hope and the courage to face an otherwise unbearable existence.
Doubtlessly, this artistic activity provided the means for everyone concerned, audiences and actors alike, to retain a small measure of humanity, free their minds –if only momentarily– from the tragedy of daily life and nourish the illusion of survival.
, he was recognized by a Hauptsturmführer
. As a result, Ehrlich was subjected to an additional martyr
dom: brought before a group of SS
officers holding their loaded guns aimed at him, he was ordered to tell joke
s. On 1 October 1944, Ehrlich's was murdered in the Auschwitz gas chamber
s.
On 12 April 1945, British troops liberated Westerbork. By then, only 876 prisoners were left: 464 men, 309 women and 229 children; only two were Theatre Group members.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, and director on the German theater, comedy and cabaret scene of the 1930s.
Biography
In the autumn of 1932, Ehrlich was at the high point of his career, one of Germany's most beloved comics, masters of ceremony and cabaret stars. His creative accomplishments included leading roles in Max ReinhardtMax Reinhardt
----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...
productions, the Haller-Revue, and other cabarets as well as stage groups. Also to his credit: forty-two movies, ten of which he directed, eight records, including chansons, operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
, comedy sketches and character imitations; numerous publications, amongst which his best selling book From Adelbert to Zilzer, a humorous collection of stories and anecdotes about sixty-two of his best known show business
Show business
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry from the business side to the creative element ....
friends and colleagues.
Career in Nazi Germany
In 1933, the National Socialists seized power and stopped Ehrlich and his other JewishJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
colleagues from working in Germany. As a result, he left for Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to appear with the Rudolf Nelson Revue. However, there too, Austrian anti-Semites interrupted the show with cries of "Jews get out of Vienna". Consequently, the troupe left for The Netherlands, stopping en route for stage appearances in Switzerland.
In 1935, homesick for his native land, Ehrlich returned to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. Jewish entertainers were permitted to perform there, but only within the framework of the Jüdischer Kulturbund
Jüdischer Kulturbund
Jüdischer Kulturbund, or Der Jüdische Kulturbund, was a Cultural Federation of German Jews, established in 1933...
(Jewish Cultural Union) and exclusively in front of Jewish audiences. Ehrlich was named director of the Kulturbund's light theatre departments. However, following the 1938 pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
"Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
", he decided to leave Germany for good. Both of his farewell performances immediately sold out, so that a third presentation on 2 April 1939 was added. Here, in front of a full house of fans, calling out their affection and encouragement, Ehrlich made his final appearance in Germany.
Westerbork
Subsequently, he returned to The Netherlands once again, and joined Willy Rosen's "Theater der Prominenten" (Theatre of Celebrities), until in 1943 –like so many of his colleagues– Ehrlich was imprisoned in the Westerbork concentration camp. While at Westerbork, he created and became director of, the "Camp Westerbork Theatre Group", a cabaret troupe that during its eighteen month existence staged six major theatre productions, all within the concentration camp's confines. A majority of the actors were famous Jewish show business personalities, prominent artists from Berlin and Vienna, such as Willy RosenWilly Rosen
Willy Rosen was a German composer, songwriter, and renown cabaret player. Rosen was Jewish and was killed in Auschwitz concentration camp on 29 September 1944....
, Erich Ziegler, Camilla Spira
Camilla Spira
Camilla Spira was a German film actress. She appeared in 68 films between 1924 and 1986.She was born in Hamburg, Germany and died in Berlin, Germany.-Selected filmography:* Piccadilly Zero Hour 12...
, and Kurt Gerron
Kurt Gerron
Kurt Gerron was a German Jewish actor and film director.-Life:Born Kurt Gerson into a well-off merchant family in Berlin, he initially studied medicine but was called up for military service in World War I. Seriously wounded he qualified as a military doctor of the German Army...
; or well-known Dutch performers, like Esther Philipse, Jetty Cantor, and Johnny & Jones. At its high point, the group counted fifty-one members, including a full team of musicians, dancers, choreographers, artists, tailors, make-up, lighting and other technicians, as well as stage hands.
Most of the shows combined elements of revue and cabaret –songs and sketches– but, on one occasion, the program included a revue-operetta, Ludmilla, or Corpses Everywhere—a production whose theme sadly was a pre-sentiment of the actors' and other prisoners' fate. While some scenes were implicitly critical, of course, the Theatre Group at no time produced openly political cabaret or directly attacked the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
regime. To do so would have violated the most fundamental condition for the troupe's and its members' survival, as life in Westerbork was dominated by the persistent threat of deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
on the next transport to an unknown but deeply feared fate in the East. So, standing helplessly and unaided before the fascists
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
' executioners and their lackeys, the Theatre Group, of necessity, limited itself to entertaining its audiences and to momentarily distracting them from the surrounding horrors. But in so doing, it also gave their captive audiences renewed hope and the courage to face an otherwise unbearable existence.
Doubtlessly, this artistic activity provided the means for everyone concerned, audiences and actors alike, to retain a small measure of humanity, free their minds –if only momentarily– from the tragedy of daily life and nourish the illusion of survival.
Death
During the summer of 1944, increasing numbers of transports carried Westerbork's prisoners to the extermination camps in the East. Of 104,000 camp inmates, less than 5,000 survived. In the last transport to leave Westerbork, on 4 September 1944, Ehrlich was number 151 on the list of victims. Eyewitnesses recount that, after reaching AuschwitzAuschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
, he was recognized by a Hauptsturmführer
Hauptsturmführer
Hauptsturmführer was a Nazi rank of the SS which was used between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank of Hauptsturmführer was a mid-grade company level officer and was the equivalent of a Captain in the German Army and also the equivalent of captain in foreign armies...
. As a result, Ehrlich was subjected to an additional martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
dom: brought before a group of SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
officers holding their loaded guns aimed at him, he was ordered to tell joke
Joke
A joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...
s. On 1 October 1944, Ehrlich's was murdered in the Auschwitz gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
s.
On 12 April 1945, British troops liberated Westerbork. By then, only 876 prisoners were left: 464 men, 309 women and 229 children; only two were Theatre Group members.
Actor
- In der Heimat, da gibt's ein Wiedersehn! (1926)
- Familientag im Hause Prellstein (1927)
- Herkules Maier (1928)
- Die blaue Maus (1928)
- Die tolle Komteß (1928)
- Ihr dunkler Punkt (1928)
- Liebfraumilch (1928)
- Der schwarze Domino (1929)
- Wien, du Stadt der Lieder (1930)
- Hokuspokus (1930)
- Die vom Rummelplatz (1930)
- Der Korvettenkapitän/Blaue Jungs von der Marine (1930)
- Leutnant warst Du einst bei deinen Husaren (1930)
- Susanne macht Ordnung (1930)
- Kabarett-Programm Nr. 2 (short film, 1931)
- Kabarett-Programm Nr. 6 (short film, 1931)
- Die Marquise von Pompadour (1930)
- Der Tanzhusar (1930/31)
- In Wien hab' ich einmal ein Mädel geliebt (1931)
- Um eine Nasenlänge (1931)
- Der Storch streikt. Siegfried der Matrose (1931)
- Die schwebende Jungfrau (1931)
- Der Schlemihl (1931)
- Der Hochtourist (1931)
- Goldblondes Mädchen, ich schenk Dir mein Herz — Ich bin ja so verliebt... (1931/32)
- Der Glückszylinder (1932)
- Wer zahlt heute noch? (short film, 1932)
- Wenn die Liebe Mode macht (1932)
- Herr Direktor engagiert (short film, 1932/33)
Director
- Revierkrank (short film, 1932)
- Die erste Instruktionsstunde (short film, 1932)
- Kaczmarek als Rosenkavalier (short film, 1932/33)
- Hugos Nachtarbeit (1933)
Film writer
- Es zogen drei Burschen.../Drei Seelen und ein Gedanke (1927)
- Flitterwochen (1928)
- Fräulein Chauffeur (1928)
- In Werder blühen die Bäume (1928)
- Die Wochenendbraut (1928)
- Die tolle Komteß (1928)
- Das Haus ohne Männer (1928)
- Ein kleiner Vorschuß auf die Seligkeit (1928/29)
- Mascottchen (1928/29)
- Der Greifer (1930)
- Hugo's Nachtarbeit (short film, 1933)