Movie-Prisoner of Paradise

Prisoner of Paradise (2002) is a documentary about Kurt Gerron, a Jewish actor and director in prewar Germany. This man, talented and famous, is deluded by his ego and his work into thinking that he could survive the Holocaust. He couldn't, but the Nazis used him to their own ends.

Little known is a concentration camp that the Nazis set up for famous and talented members of the Jewish community...people that the international community might ask about...scientists, musicians, painters and writers. They set these people up in a special ghetto, and then used Kurt Gerron to make a documentary about that ghetto, showing hop happy and well cared for everyone was. They even fooled a Red Cross representative who was brought in to see the "town" and listen to the concerts and plays put on for his benefit.

Now it must be said that these people probably lived better than in some other of the camps, but they did not stay there long. It was a short respite before leaving for the death camps. And Gerron did not last either. After his film was complete, he too was shipped out in a cattle car.

The documentary has a little too much about Gerron before the war, and should have concentrated on the time the Nazis started coming to power. But it is effective in showing how people fooled themselves into thinking that everything would be alright. Gerron had several chances to leave Europe and go to Hollywood, but always thought he had more time. It also shows the choices people had to make (as in the movie The Counterfeiters): how to save their own life, balanced against helping the Nazis eliminate their race.

Very interesting, and with most films on this subject, rife with moral and ethical questions.