Marlene Dietrich: Friend Of The Jews And Israel

With all my posts on antisemitism today, I feel the need to bring you a more positive post on one of the “good guys”: actress Marlene Dietrich

By 1937 the pressure for Marlene to return to Germany was increasing, the Third Reich was running newspaper reports telling her to return to Germany and stop allowing herself to be the tool of Hollywood’s Jews. Marlene made the decision to become an American citizen and cut all ties with Germany, thus allowing her to continue her career.

She was reportedly offered money to return to her homeland of Germany but refused saying she would return only when one of her Jewish friends could accompany her.

During World War II Marlene joined the Allied forces and performed in hundreds of shows overseas in North Africa and Europe, entertaining Allied troops at the front. During these shows Marlene sang the favourites, ‘Lili Marleen’, ‘Boys in the Backroom’, and ‘Falling in Love Again’ and also played the musical saw.

She was also a supporter of Israel.

Click to enlarge

3 thoughts on “Marlene Dietrich: Friend Of The Jews And Israel”

  1. There was an interesting story about her in a documentary on German Jewish refugees who served in the U.S. Army during the war. Two of them, whose assignment was to interrogate captured German soldiers, used their Intelligence Corps I.D. to meet with her backstage at one of her USO performances. They invited her to tour one of our POW camps to help them loosen the tongues of the prisoners, and she delightedly accepted. The POWs could hardly believe their eyes when she walked through, much to the amusement of the intelligence men.

  2. Her greatest performance was in “Judgment at Nuremberg,” in which, as the widow of a German officer, she unintentionally gave judge Spencer Tracy an education on the Nazi mentality. The screenplay won an Oscar.

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