Career highs
Wiera Gran had a number of hits throughout her career, such as List (music by Eddy Courts), Fernando, Varsovie de mon enfance, Ma Patrie, Mazowiecki wiatr. In 1946 in Paris she recorded Nasza ulica, with music by Olgierd Straszyński and lyrics by Janusz Odrowąż for the Odeon Label, as well as Ulicę Niecałą, with lyrics by Marian Hemar, after the war. A number of compilations of her songs have been published over the years, her voice still captivating listeners decades after she first performed them in the ghetto. As Marian Fuks wrote in his diaries Z diariusza muzycznego, Warsaw 1977/1981,
She fascinated listeners with her beautiful, low, velvety voice, simple interpretation, natural composure, lack of pretension. Her repertoire was ambitious. Her uncanny lyrics were meant for an intelligent, intellectually discerning, exclusive public. She represented her own style of performance. This smoothly coiffed brunette, with her large bun, in a black dress buttoned up to the neck and long sleeves, made a huge impression. She broke through to great art without loud publicity and devious impresarios, she made use of her own energy and talents. She quickly achieved success.
In 2006, on the occasion of the 3rd National Retro Music Festival, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski granted her the Honourary Diploma for lifetime achievement in her field and the popularisation of the interwar period of the 1920s. That same year she also received Mieczysław Fogg's Golden Leaf (Złoty liść) distinction. She died in Paris in 2007.
Dark legend
Her escape from the ghetto inspired a number of rumours, namely on the part of Jonas Turkow, an actor and director, who claimed she had collaborated with the Nazis. After the war she personally appealed to the prosecutor in a desire to clear her name of these allegations. The matter was complicated by the fact that her performances in the ghetto, an area of extreme poverty, were enjoyed by a privileged public – in particular the Judenrat, many members of whom consorted with the Nazis. Entertainers certainly had an opportunity to bear witness to significant interests and exchanges, but were wary of sharing what they had seen. The Prosecutor's office gave up the investigation in November of 1945 based on lack of evidence. The common law court of the ZASP artists association, under the direction of Aleksandr Zelwerowicz, declared in December that there was nothing amiss regarding Gran's behaviour during the Nazi occupation. In January 1946 he Verification Commission of the Musicians Professional Labour Association (ZZM) found that Gran had not 'compromised the honour of Poland in any way' and granted her permission to continue her craft. The Citizen's Court associated with the Central Committee of Polish Jews (CKŻP) held over a year of hearings before declaring her innocence in January 1949. In his book, Antoni Marianowicz writes of the trials:
I find them to be shamefully idiotic. Wiera Gran was the most popular singer of the ghetto and I never heard an ill word about her. On the contrary, she was known for her charity and philanthropy. The pretense that she had "consorted" with Jewish gestapo agents I find unfounded. […] I never heard anyone accuse her off malconduite or of taking advantage of her contacts for lowly aims. These accusations, hence, may only have to do with personal animosities and plain envy.
Joanna Szczęsna posits a similar stance, suggesting that the accusations against Gran were based on rumours and gossip. She wrote an article in defense of Wiera Gran for the Gazeta Wyborcza daily 'She was not an agent' (23.11.2010), drawing upon the words of Marek Edelman just after the war, which stated that Wiera Gran's only crime was her voice and talent, which was greater than that of Diana Blumfeld – incidentally, Turkow's wife.
Accusations against the pianist
The tragedy of the talented young singer who had lost her entire family in the war lied in dealing with accusations and enemies wherever she appeared. Many believe that this fact had a psychological impact on Gran. Allegedly, she began to suffer from paranoia, and many believe that this is the reason why she claimed that the pianist was among the Jewish policemen in her book Sztafeta oszczerców [Race of Slanderers]. She wrote:
Among the inhuman screams breaking out, the Jewish militiamen were beating everything in sight with a head on its shoulders. At the sight of a woman being beaten with a baton, I wanted to scream! This shameful act was done by the hands of... the pianist! I saw him like the back of my own hand. He survived the war. He's doing quite well. I want him to know that I saw this. Even though I have evidence against him, I have no need for merciless revenge.
Gran never revealed the pianist's name, yet in her biography of Gran, Agata Tuszyńska ascribes the part of the brutish pianist to Władysław Szpilman, the tragic hero of Roman Polański's The Pianist. The real-life Szpilman died in 2000, but his family has come to his defense, filing a lawsuit against Tuszyńska and the Wydawnictwo Literackie publishing house for defamy. At the trial in Warsaw, in early April 2013, 91-year-old Władysław Bartoszewski, the last living member of the Jewish Assistance Council testified that:
I never had any information that Szpilman was in the police. I didn't even know that he was in the ghetto. I believe that if a man of his stature had been a policeman in the ghetto, it's impossible for it not to have become common knowledge within the Jewish community.
In August 2014, however, the supreme court in Poland rejected the lawsuit, arguing that Tuszyńska had the right to quote Wiera Gran’s words, even if her accusations were entirely false. The judge emphasized the fact that Wiera Gran expressed her opinions about Szpilman already in the ‘70s, before her mental disorder was showing. Tuszyńska also had the right to reference the IPN (The Institute of National Remembrance) files, which demonstrated that Szpilman, when trying to obtain a passport from the People’s Republic of Poland, told the Security Service that Gran collaborated with the Gestapo.
In the end, the Supreme Court of Poland ordered that the case be reopened at the appeal court in Warsaw. On 29th July 2016 the court announced its decision, this time different from the previous verdict – it was in favour of Halina Grzecznarowska-Szpilman, the widow, and Szpilman's son, Andrzej.
The court ordered that Agata Tuszyńska, the author of the biography, and Wydawnictwo Literackie, its publisher, apologise to the family. The fragments in which Tuszyńska quoted Gran's opinions on Szpilman were, according to the court, allegations of collaboration with the Nazis, and the author did not present sufficient distance towards the opinions presented by Gran. Finally, Wydawnictwo Literackie was also supposed to remove the fragments about Szpilman from all subsequent editions of the book. After the verdict had been announced, Halina Grzecznarowska-Szpilman said she was happy even though not all of her expectations were met. The author of the book, Agata Tuszyńska, said: 'Wiera Gran is being hushed again. I am very sorry about this'.
After the war
Wiera Gran began singing again, joining Stefan Rachoń's orchestra in a performance for Polish Radio in November 1945 and latered toured with the orchestra. She sang Her First Ball, accompanied by Władysław Szpilman and Czesław Aniołkiewicz. She also performed at the Syrena Theatre in Łódź and the Casanova café in Kraków. She also recorded music for the Odeon label in Poznań and starred in Jeremi Przybora's radio programme Teatr Eterek in 1950, singing Przybora's Prysły zmysły in the role of Lola van Szezlong.
In November 1950 she emigrated to Israel and lost her Polish citizenship. Yet the accusations of consorting with the Nazis continued to haunt her and two years later she left for Paris, where she began performing at the Comodor Hotel and the Dinarzade cabaret. In the 1950s she rose to stardom in France, winning over audiences and critics. She sang at Maurice Chevalier's Alhambra, and collaborated by Charles Aznavour and Jacques Brel. She also performed in London at the Ref-Rena Polonia Theatre run by Marian Hemar and Feliks Konarski. Zygmunt Kon, London correspondent for the Polish daily Dziennik Polski i Dziennik Żołnierza, wrote of her "deep voice of a sensual tone, clean diction, predilection for fortissima in her vocal interpretation and fluid daramtic expression. With a varied scale of emotion she sincerely expresses the outrage and indignation of a woman's spirit" (31.08.1959).
She toured the world - Sweden, Canada, United States, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Mexico. She also starred in Frederic Rossif's film Le temps du ghetto and recorded for Radio Free Europe and the Polish edition of Radio France Internationale. In 1965 she returned to Poland for three months, taking part in concerts and recording an album with Jerzy Abratowski's orchestra. She and Szpilman recorded a new version of "Her First Ball" penned by Bronisław Brok.
In the summer of 1969 she sang at New York's Carnegie Hall and in 1970 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. She traveled to Israel to sing but was denied after former concentration camp inmates protested, declaring they would wear striped uniforms to the her show. She returned to Paris and began writing Race of Slanderers, which she published independently in 1980. In the meantime, throughout the 1970s, she would return to Israel to carry out defamation lawsuits, which were endlessly delayed for procedural reasons.
At the end of 2006 Wiera Gran took up residence as a pensioner at the Polonia Home in Lailly-en-Val. She died on the 19th of November 2007 at St. Casimir's Home in 119 rue Chevaleret in Paris (where Cyprian Kamil Norwid had also spent the august years of his life over a decade before). She was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Pantin, outside of Paris. Her funeral was attended by 13 people, including 4 nuns, 2 rabbis. Her plot had been purchased for no more than ten years.
On the day of her passing Marcin Przybylski read a selection from the novel Bądź moim Bogiem, inspired by the life of the singer, on Polish Radio.
Author: Janusz R. Kowalczyk, April 2013, updated April 2013. Translated by Agnieszka Le Nart, April 2013, updated by Natalia Sajewicz, August 2018.