Kurt Gerron's Karussell

Bittersweet film about the journey of a Jewish entertainer, Kurt Gerron, during the Holocaust. Gerron (co-star of von Sternberg's The Blue Angel) opened a cabaret, Karussell, in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt. In 1944 he was forced to direct a propaganda film, The Fuehrer gives the Jews a city, in exchange for his life. The film was shown to the International Red Cross in 1944 as part of the Nazis' attempt to convince the world the Jews were treated well in the camps. In 1944 Gerron's life and work came to an abrupt end in an Auschwitz gas chamber. Photography, Jacek Blawut ; editing, Christina Graff, Silke Regele. 1 videodisc (approximately 63 min.) : sound, color with black and white sequences ; 4 3/4 in.