Kurt Gerron
Kurt Gerron was a German Jewish actor and film director. He was born Kurt Gerson in Berlin on 11 May 1897 and became famous in Berlin’s cabaret scene and in films during the 1920s and early 1930s. He acted in The Threepenny Opera, playing Tiger Brown and singing Mack the Knife, which became a hit. He also appeared in The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Gerron and other Jewish artists were banned from work. He left Germany with his wife Olga and his parents, moving first to Paris, then Vienna, and finally Amsterdam. In the Netherlands he continued to act and direct. He was offered chances to go to Hollywood but chose to stay in Europe.
After the Wehrmacht occupied the Netherlands in 1940, Gerron kept working for a while. His parents were arrested in 1943 and sent to Sobibor, where they were killed. Gerron and his wife were arrested later that year and sent to Westerbork transit camp, then to Theresienstadt (Terezín) in 1944.
In Theresienstadt he was forced to perform in a cabaret and to help make a Nazi propaganda film about the camp. The film was meant to show that life in Theresienstadt was humane. Gerron also directed parts of the project with other imprisoned artists. The film was finished after they had been deported, but it was never shown to the public and was later destroyed. Gerron’s notes from the filming survived, and a short 23-minute educational version exists.
Gerron and his wife were sent from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz on 28 October 1944 and were killed in the gas chambers on 30 October 1944. Most of the film team also died, though a few survived.
Today, a Stolperstein memorial for Kurt Gerron and Olga Gerson was placed in Berlin in 2022.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 00:37 (CET).