Polish Tango: Wiera Gran - Fernando (1939)

Wiera Gran & Ork. Odeon pod dyr. Jerzego Gerta (Odeon Orchester dir. by Jerzy Gert) - Fernando [Fernando / You Can’t Force a Girl To Always Love You] Tango (Frank, Gert - Drabik) Odeon, 1939 (Polish)
NOTE: This tango is one of the last pre-war Polish hits recorded on the Polish branch of the Odeon label. In September 1939, the distinguished history of the Warsaw-based Odeon label was cut short, and in a few months Wiera Gran - whose star as one of Poland's top pop-singers was rapidly rising - joined hundreds of thousands of Jewish residents in the Nazi ghetto for Polish Jews set up in Warsaw by the German occupiers of Poland during World War II. (Wiera Gran’s Jewish name was Dwojra Grynberg). She survived the Holocaust thanks to her Polish friends who hid Wiera Gran until 1945 in one of the villages by Warsaw.
Accused after the war by her Jewish compatriots of the pro-Nazi “collaboration” - the accusations never confirmed by any trustworthy evidence - made her life in years to come, the hell of accusations and slender within the Jewish circles in Poland and on the emigration in Paris. They went so far as to claim that eyewitnesses had seen her driving around Warsaw in a carriage, accompanied by an SS officer with whom she was supposedly “having an affair”. Anyone who lived through even one day in German-occupied Warsaw, especially on the Jewish side, would know how absurd such accusations were. Wiera Gran was a great star of pre-war entertainment in Poland and her Jewish origin was widely known. Any German officer who showed himself in public with such a "mistress" during the war would immediately be sent to the eastern front or worse. Nevertheless, when she arrived in Israel for her concerts, she was greeted at the train station by militia of her enemies, dressed in the Auschwitz camp striped uniforms.
A great Polish song star, Wiera Gran was thus annihilated. After the war, she recorded a few 78 rpm albums on a Polish label in Paris. In the 1960s she visited Poland and recorded an LP with her old hits in the new arrangements. These records show what excellent vocal conditions she still had, even better than before the war. Unfortunately, she was not allowed to develop.

[@scottferguson325]

Beautiful video with magnificent background music and pictures of old Warsaw 👍✨👍✨👍✨

[@240252]

Thank you :-)

[@jeanpierrezutter587]

Un très beau tango !!
Wiera Gran avait une belle voix !!

[@danutakrzywda]

Niezapomniana Wiera Gran.....Twój film zapewne by ja ogromnie wzruszył..Te uliczki.....

[@240252]

Smutne życie, niesłusznie oskarżona o kolaborację z Niemcami, skończyła w Paryżu prawie w całkowitym zapomnieniu.

[@danutakrzywda]

@@240252 TAK....

[@antonellamenghi3750]

Che storia triste, Mr. G. La Signora aveva grandi doti interpretative: un altro talento artistico sprecato. Le foto sono molto belle, come sempre.

[@240252]

Lei aveva una vita lunga e triste (morì nel 2007).

[@1920sfan1]

She was an outstanding, very talented artist, who sadly could not develop her career... a sad story but despite all adverse circumstances, her enormous skill is obvious in this nostalgic tango. I thoroughly enjoyed the exquisite excursion to pre-war Warsaw :-)

[@davidheger670]

A fine tango beautifully sung by the great singer, "The Accused" Wiera Gran. As you wrote in the notes, Grzegorz, none of the accusations was ever verified by any court, in Poland or Israel. In his book, (which I read in Hebrew) Jonas Turkow, one of her accusers, admits that during the war he was emphatically told by Gadejski (who pointed out facts to him) that the rumors about her were libelous. Unfortunately, suspicion and guilt caused many survivors to accuse other survivors of collaboration with the Germans.

[@antoniocampagnefilho120]

lindas cançoes parabens

[@240252]

Thank you ! :-)

[@badeamihnea6079]

Lovely song and an interesting story!

[@oldemargloria6495]

Música antiga muito bonita

[@240252]

Thank you