| Wiera Gran | |
|---|---|
Wiera Gran |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Weronika Grynberg |
| Also known as | Wiera Gran, Vera Gran, Viera Green, Sylvia Green, Mariol |
| Born | April 20, 1916 Russia |
| Died | November 19, 2007 (aged 91) Paris, France |
| Genres | tango |
| Occupations | singer |
| Instruments | vocals |
| Years active | 1934-2007 |
Wiera Gran (20 April 1916 – 19 November 2007) was a Polish singer and actress. Reputedly born as Weronika Grynberg, she was also known as Vera Gran and Mariol.
Wiera Gran had a low alto voice even in early 1934, when at the age of 17 when - using the pseudonym Sylvia Green - she made her first recording, the tango Grzech.[1] She sang in the Cafe Paradis in Warsaw in the early 1930s.[2] While most of her recordings are in the Polish language, she sang in Yiddish in the movie On a heym (Without a home) with Shimon Dzigan and Israel Shumacher.
She escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. In 1947, she was accused in Poland of collaboration with the Germans during World War II by Jonas Turkow and Adolf Berman. Władyslaw Szpilman said in the court to hear of her collaboration in "aryan" Warsaw during the war. Marek Edelman (Kommendant of the Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw) said on 5.5.1945 (before the end of the war) that he knew of the collaboration of Wiera Gran with the Gestapo. He knew also that a death sentence was imposed against her by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa - AK), but Gran was not found, and therefore it did not come to an enforcement.[3] Similar information reported by Irena Sendlerowa[4] AK [5] Wiera Gran later emigrated to Israel where she had to face similar accusations.[6]
In 1950, she moved to France. She was associated with Maurice Chevalier's stage theater, "Alhambra". She also worked with Charles Aznavour. The first song which made her popular was composed in 1937 by Adolf Kurc (later known as Eddy Courts) to Gran's lyrics. She traveled to Poland in 1965. Some of her best known songs include "List", "Wir tańca nas porwał", "Gdy odejdziesz", "Trzy listy", "Fernando", "Cicha jest noc", "Varsovie de mon enfance", "Ma Patrie" and "Mazowiecki wiatr".
After the war, in 1945, Gran was accused by Jonas Turkow [7] of collaboration while in the Warsaw Ghetto and later, outside of the Ghetto on the "aryan" side of the wall - in the Hotel Polski. In 1947, the Citizen's Court of the Central Committee of Polish Jews (Sąd Obywatelski przy Centralnym Komitecie Żydów Polskich) heard the case and Gran was found not guilty in 1949 (the case was dropped by the Committee's lawyers for lack of incriminating evidence).
The Jewish Historical Institute (Żydowski Instytut Historyczny) in Warsaw holds documents from that period. In Israel, she was also accused of collaboration with German Gestapo by Jonas Turkow, Adolf Berman and Pesach Burstein and boycotted. She attempted to clear her name in courts there but the trial was finally suspended in 1982 causing her to lose the case.[8][9]
In her book Sztafeta Oszczerców[10] published in 1980 in Paris, Gran gives her own account of events and argues her innocence accusing Jonas Turkow of collaboration with Gestapo. Irena Sendlerowa says in 1983[4] as a member of the AK (National Army): "Wiera Gran - was a cabaret actress in the ghetto. She also appeared on the so-called "Aryan" side in "Cafe Mocca" in the Marszalkowska street, and worked with Leon Skosowski, Adam Zurawin, Koenig, Wlodarski, Mark Rozenberg and Franciszaka Manowna for the Gestapo. Adam Zurawin Skosowski and Leon were sentenced to death in 1943 by the Polish and Jewish underground movement. Skosowskis sentence was carried out in Warsaw by the members of underground organizations. Zurawin escaped. After the shooting of Skosowski, Wiera Gran hid in Babice (Boernerowo) under the name - Jezierska." This information and the underground army (AK) reports were not known to the courts in 1946-47, when deliberating over Wiera Gran's guilt.., It is proven that her husband, Kazimierz Jezierski at the time was employed by the Polish Ministry of State Security.Antoni Marianowicz, at this time 16-years old, considers the accusations to be profoundly idiotic, but Marianowicz says himself in his book, that he stayed most of the wartime outside of the ghetto in the "aryan" Warsaw. [11] Marianowicz claims Wiera Gran was a "singer and only a singer" and was known to him for her philanthropy. A similar statement is made by journalist Joanna Szczęsna in Gazeta Wyborcza [7] Szczęsna posits that the accusations against Gran were based on personal animosities between Gran and Jonas Turkow and Władyslaw Szpilman. Joanna Szczęsna in Gazeta Wyborcza [7] informs that Gran accuses Szpilman and Polanski of planning to kill Wiera Gran. It is possible that Władyslaw Szpilman saw Gran in person collaborating with the Gestapo "13" - a Jewish department of the Gestapo in the Warsaw Ghetto. Gran was very closely related to some policemen and members of the "13". She was described in the book "The Pianist" by Władyslaw Szpilman as Mrs K. in the chapter "A Fine Gesture by Mrs K". Szczęsna quotes, from documents preserved in the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, statements made by witnesses such as Jerzy Jurandot, Krystyna Żywulska and Izabela Czajka-Stachowicz , all of whom claimed that the accusations against Wiera Gran were based on hearsay.