He Put Dracula on the Big Screen, and Saved Jews from a Real Monster

The Fellowship  |  April 8, 2019

A new documentary on Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Studios, shares details on his work to rescue 300 Jewish families from Nazi Germany reports the Times of Israel.

According to “Carl Laemmle,” Universal pulled out of Germany after Hitler came to power in 1933, while other American studios continued making films there…

“What’s interesting to me is that he loses the studio, which would normally be a devastating situation,” Freedman said. “It ends up allowing him to devote all of his time, and a lot of his fortune, to save Jews. He had the motto ‘It can be done.’”

Laemmle “tried to get every Jewish relative, friend, stranger, anyone he could, out of Laupheim,” Freedman said, adding that the former studio head approached people he knew in the US, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and asked them to do the same, resulting in more people being saved.

According to Freedman, the affidavits Laemmle submitted on behalf of refugees allowed them to come to the US even after his death.