« And then there was the war, there were shortages, but artists had never been so prolific. For every film, there was a song that became a hit – oh my! […] And the very next day we’d go and buy the sheet music. I had a friend who played the piano, so she’d play it on her piano and we’d sing along. We were absolutely on fire! Just like today’s fans ! [ … ]. What made a film good ? It was the story, whether it was well acted, and above all, the songs! ».
Elisabeth remembered the stars she admired very well. Of all the celebrities, she was particularly fond of the actor Johannes Heesters, and the actresses Zarah Leander and Ilse Werner.
« Ilse Werner was brilliant. She sang, she whistled – she was fantastic. [The films] brought us a kind of happiness that we couldn’t find anywhere else during the war. »
Even without having rewatched the films, she was still able to recount very specific scenes that filled her with wonder:
« It was in Munchausen. There was that famous scene where human heads were sprouting from the flowers. It was fa-tas-tical. I think it was also Ilse Werner who played that role alongside Hans Albers ».
She used to write letters to celebrities asking for autographs. The Austrian Hans Moser replied: « We were young, sixteen years old, fans of artists in the same way that young people are fans of bands nowadays. So we used to write to them… But he was the only one who replied… ».
Elisabeth has kept this souvenir for decades, along with around thirty other postcards. They featured, amongst others, Ilse Werner, Harry Piel, Ferdinand Marian, Viktor de Kowa, René Deltgen and Lizzi Waldmüller. The title of the film in which she saw the actor or actress is sometimes written on the back. After the war, Elisabeth felt a sense of loss stemming from her inability to continue and nurture her passion for German films. She very often spoke of being ‘blacklisted’ when referring to the fate of Nazi film stars at the end of the war: « Once the war was over, it became taboo. No one spoke of any German artists anymore. They were all blacklisted. […] I don’t know, were they Nazis or not? At sixteen, we didn’t worry about that sort of thing. But were they Nazis or not? Well, Ilse Werner. She was all right. I saw her on the telly afterwards. She said: “We had to eat; we had to work.” What were they supposed to do? Were they supposed to leave for America like Marlene Dietrich? And even then, after the war, the Germans resented her because she’d been disloyal to her country… What are we supposed to do in situations like that? But what are we supposed to do? ».
Photo 76 : National archive of The Netherland – Actor Hans Albers (1891-1960) in Münchhausen (1943, Josef von Baky).
Photo 77 : Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum – Viktor de Kowa (1904-1973) and Grethe Weiser (1903-1970) in Wir machen Musik (1942, Helmut Käutner).
Photo 78 : Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum –Actress Ilse Werner (1921-2005) in Das Leben kann so schön sein (1938, Rolf Hansen).