Abraham Tuschinski
Abraham Tuschinski · Arts & Literature
Built the Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam (1921), still called the most beautiful cinema in the world; murdered at Auschwitz in 1942.
14 mai 1886, Brzeziny, Pologne — 17 septembre 1942, Auschwitz
Rotterdam, Amsterdam
Abraham Tuschinski is recognized among Jewish contributors to Arts & Literature — Built the Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam (1921), still called the most beautiful cinema in the world; murdered at Auschwitz in 1942.
The tailor from Brzeziny
Abraham Icek Tuschinski was born on 14 May 1886 in Brzeziny, a garment town near Łódź, into a Polish Jewish family. In 1903, bound for America, he stopped in Rotterdam for the crossing — and never sailed: the young tailor stayed, worked, and began to dream of theatres.
The Rotterdam cinemas
In 1911 he opened his first four Rotterdam cinemas — the Thalia, Cinema Royal, Scala and Olympia — and in 1928 the Grand Theater. He ran the concern with his two brothers-in-law: Hermann Gerschtanowitz kept the business, Hermann Ehrlich shared the founder's artistic streak, and the three names stood together on the boards of the Rotterdam houses.
The Theater Tuschinski
On 28 October 1921 he opened the Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam: 1,620 seats, the largest cinema in the Netherlands, its interior a blaze of Amsterdam School, Art Deco and Jugendstil that has been called the most beautiful cinema in the world ever since. In 1928 he added another famed Amsterdam house, the Roxy.
The war
The German bombing of 14 May 1940 destroyed his Rotterdam cinemas. The occupier seized the Amsterdam theatre and struck the Jewish name from its façade — from 1 November 1940 it was to be called 'Tivoli'. On 1 July 1942 Tuschinski was sent to the Westerbork camp, and on 17 September 1942 he was murdered at Auschwitz; his wife, Mariem Estera Ehrlich, was murdered as well.
The legacy
At the liberation the theatre took back its name, and a plaque inside honours the three founders. Pathé restored the house to its original glory from 1998 to 2002, and on 28 October 2021 — its hundredth birthday — King Willem-Alexander granted it the royal predicate: the Koninklijk Theater Tuschinski, the Royal Theatre that still carries, in letters of light, the name of the man from Brzeziny.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: Wikipedia ; Joods Monument ; Huygens ING
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Built the Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam (1921), still called the most beautiful cinema in the world; murdered at Auschwitz in 1942.
Source: Wikipedia ; Joods Monument ; Huygens ING
