Veit Harlan

Vocation

Family

German film director and actor who made the Nazi Reich's loudest, most colourful and expensive films. After studying under Max Reinhardt, he first appeared on the stage in 1915 and, after World War I, worked on the Berlin stage. In 1922 he married Jewish actress and cabaret singer Dora Gerson; the couple divorced in 1924. Gerson later died at Auschwitz with her family. In 1929, he married Hilde Körber, having three children with her before divorcing her for political reasons related to the influence of National Socialism. One of their children, Thomas Harlan, became a writer and director in his own right. Afterwards, he married the Swedish actress Kristina Söderbaum, for whom he wrote several tragic roles By 1937, Joseph Goebbels had appointed Harlan as one of his leading propaganda directors. His most notorious film was Jud Süß (1940), which was made for anti-Semitic propaganda purposes in Germany and Austria. In 1943 it received UFA's highest awards. After the war Harlan was charged with participating in the anti-Semitic movement and aiding the Nazis. But he successfully defended himself by arguing that the Nazis controlled his work and that he should not be held personally responsible for its content. In 1949, Harlan was charged with crimes against humanity for his role as director of Jud Süß. The Hamburg Criminal Chamber of the Regional Court (Schwurgericht) acquitted Harlan of the charges; however, the court of the British occupation zone nullified the acquittal. Harlan made a total of nine films between 1950 and 1958, dying on 13 April 1964, aged 64, while on vacation in Capri. The documentary Harlan – In the Shadow of Jew Süss (2008) by Felix Moeller explores Harlan's motivations and the post-war reaction of his children and grandchildren to his notoriety. Link to Wikipedia biography