CINEMA: Bergner Banned

Three days before last week’s Berlin premiere of Catherine the Great, British-made cinema in which Elizabeth Bergner, Austrian-born Jewess, plays the young queen (TIME, Feb. 19), Minister of Propaganda Paul Joseph Goebbels issued a pro-nouncement: “Non-Aryans who had disappeared and who had apparently, for the most part fled abroad, are again appearing in German theatres. … It must not come to this, that the public takes to self-help to defend itself. . . .” To make the pronouncement plainer, Dr. Goebbels’ newspaper, Der Angriff, published an article which flayed Jewish actors in general and Elizabeth Bergner in particular. When the picture opened, there was a mob of uniformed Nazis in the street outside the Capitol Theatre. In the lobby were police to help ticket holders through the door. The first performance, except for a few eggs smashed on billboards, passed off quietly. By the time the second performance started two hours later, the crowd in the street had worked itself up into a rage. While a fashionable audience with included British Ambassador Sir Eric Phipps edged into the theatre, there were wild shouts of: “We don’t want Bergner! We don’t want Jewish actresses—the Judah of Paris!” More eggs spattered on placards and against the lights. Finally, just when it looked as if the affair would turn into one of the worst riots of the Third Reich. Nazi Commander Ernst Roehm of the Berlin Storm Troops persuaded the mob to quiet down. Reenforcements of police blocked the street at both ends, dispersed the crowd before the audience, which waited inside ten minutes to cheer Cinemactress Bergner, emerged. Next day the real significance of the disturbance became apparent. Catherine the Great, which had been passed by the Propaganda Ministry’s censorship department and which had been sold out for a week in advance, was summarily banned by the Reich Film Chamber. The Propaganda Ministry issued a statement that the incident would serve as a warning against the future admittance of other films with Jewish actors.