Wiera Gran, real name Dwojra Grynberg (20 April 1916 – 19 November 2007) was a Polish singer and actress of Jewish ancestry. 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''. She sang in the Cafe Paradis in Warsaw in the early 1930s. 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and was hiding in Warsaw-Babice (Boernerowo). In 1950, she moved to France. She was associated with

Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", "Louise", " Mimi", and "Thank Hea ...

's stage theater, ''

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the ...

''. She performed in Paris in the charity concert 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".

Collaboration case

After the war, in 1945, Gran was accused in Poland by

Jonas Turkow Jonas Turkow (Warsaw, 15 February 1898 – Tel Aviv, 1 December 1988) was an actor, stage manager, director and writer. He received the Itzik Manger Prize for his contributions to Yiddish letters. He was the brother of the actor Zygmunt Turkow, ...

Joanna Szczęsna, Piętno, "Gazeta Wyborcza – Wysokie Obcasy", 31 maja 200
"Gazeta Wyborcza – Wysokie Obcasy", 31 May 2008
/ref> and

Adolf Berman Adolf Avraham Berman (, 17 October 1906 – 3 February 1978) was a Polish-Israeli activist and communist politician. Biography Born in Warsaw in the Russian Empire (today in Poland), the younger brother of Jakub Berman. Berman attended the Unive ...

of collaboration with the Germans during World War II.

Władysław Szpilman Władysław Szpilman (; 5 December 1911 – 6 July 2000) was a Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film '' The Pianist'', which was based on Szpilman ...

said in the court that he had heard of her collaboration in "Aryan" Warsaw during the war since August 1943. Marek Edelman (Kommandant of the Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw) said on 5 May 1945 that he heard about the collaboration of Wiera Gran with the Gestapo. He heard also that a death sentence was imposed against her by the

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

(''Armia Krajowa'' – AK), but Gran was not found, and therefore it did not come to enforcement. 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. Wiera Gran later tried to emigrate to Israel where she had to face similar accusations by

, and Pesach Burstein and was boycotted. She attempted to clear her name in courts there but the trial was finally suspended in 1982.

Antoni Marianowicz Antoni is a Catalan, Polish, and Slovene given name and a surname used in the eastern part of Spain, Poland and Slovenia. As a Catalan given name it is a variant of the male names Anton and Antonio. As a Polish given name it is a variant of the fem ...

, who was 16 at the time of Germany's invasion of Poland, considered the accusations to be "profoundly idiotic", but Marianowicz says himself in his book that he stayed for most of the war outside of the ghetto in "Aryan" Warsaw. Marianowicz claims Wiera Gran was a "singer and only a singer" and was known to him for her philanthropy. In her book ''Sztafeta Oszczerców''Wiera Gran, ''Sztafeta oszczerców: Autobiography'', Paris, 1980 (self published). published in 1980 in Paris, Gran gives her own account of events and argues her innocence accusing

of collaboration with the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

. Joanna Szczęsna in 2010 ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' Szczęsna posits that the accusations against Gran were based on personal animosities between Gran and

and Władyslaw Szpilman. Szczęsna quotes, from documents preserved in the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, statements made by Grans friends such as Jerzy Jurandot, Krystyna Żywulska and Izabela Czajka-Stachowicz, all of whom claimed that the accusations against Wiera Gran were based on hearsay.

Recordings

* composer Stanisław Ferszko * Polish words by Julian Tuwim to the Russian ''Tyomnaya Noch'' by Nikita Bogoslovski *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gran, Wiera 1916 births 2007 deaths Warsaw Ghetto inmates Tango musicians Polish emigrants to France Place of birth missing 20th-century Polish women singers