Kurt Garon
- After
- Siegfried Shalom Sebba, 1929
- Year
- 2024
- Medium
- Stone, ceramic and glass mosaic on wood panel
- Dimensions
- 85 × 60 cm
About this work
Kurt Gerron was one of the stars of Berlin. In August 1928 he stood on stage at the premiere of Brecht and Weill’s "Threepenny Opera", and it was he who first sang "Mack the Knife". In 1930 he played the magician Kiepert in "The Blue Angel" opposite Marlene Dietrich. He fled to Holland in 1933, was caught, was sent to Theresienstadt, and there the Nazis forced him to direct a propaganda film presenting the camp as a resort for Jews. When filming ended he was put on the last transport to Auschwitz and murdered there in October 1944.
Shalom Sebba painted him in 1929 — between "Threepenny Opera" and "The Blue Angel", at the very peak. Sebba was born the same year as Gerron; Sebba reached Palestine in 1933 in time, and Gerron did not.
This is the only portrait in the exhibition of a person murdered in the Holocaust. Spring 2024.