dehumour1-4, Exercise 3: Cabaret artists after 1933

Model answer (check the details):

Closure and control: Werner Finck's cabaret Die Katakombe was closed by the authorities in 1935 and Finck and colleagues were arrested and held for some weeks in the camp at Esterwegen before being released. Cabaret that stayed open did so under the Reich Chamber of Culture, with the political edge removed.

Exile: Erika Mann founded the cabaret Die Pfeffermühle in Munich in January 1933 and left Germany soon afterwards, performing in Switzerland and later in the United States. Kurt Tucholsky lived in exile in Sweden and died there in 1935; his books were burned in 1933.

Persecution: Fritz Grünbaum, a Vienna cabaret performer, was arrested and died in Dachau in 1941. Kurt Gerron, an actor, singer and director, was forced to direct a propaganda film in Theresienstadt and was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944.

The point: a stage form that depended on freedom to criticise was broken within two years, and many of its people were driven out or killed. The record is detailed and should be checked in reliable histories.