Curse of the Survivor

Published: May 2, 2013, 4 a.m.

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In 1930s Warsaw, a young beauty named Vera Gran made a name for herself as a seductive and charming cabaret singer with a voice fans likened to Edith Piaf\\u2019s and Marlene Dietrich\\u2019s. Gran (born Grynberg) was, along with her mother and sisters and thousands of other Jews, forced to live inside the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. During her time in the ghetto, she continued performing until she managed, with the help of her Polish husband, to escape its confines and go into hiding in 1942. Her family perished.

As devastating as that loss was, Gran\\u2019s nightmare took a harrowing new turn after the war, when she was suddenly accused by other survivors\\u2014including her accompanist, the pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman\\u2014of having collaborated with the Gestapo. Her story captivated the Polish writer Agata Tuszy\\u0144ska, who was born after the war but whose own mother and grandmother struggled to survive in the Warsaw Ghetto and who feels still the...


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