Ian Holm narrates the Academy Award-nominated documentary PRISONER OF PARADISE, the startling true story of Kurt Gerron, a beloved, well-known German-Jewish actor, director and cabaret star in Berlin in the 1920s. Among his many accomplishments, Gerron co-starred with the legendary Marlene Dietrich in the film classic The Blue Angel. Gerron also sang "Mack the Knife" in the original production of The Threepenny Opera. PRISONER OF PARADISE airs on PBS Wednesday, April 13, 2005. check local listings Gerron fled Germany and settled in Amsterdam. After the Nazi occupations of the Netherlands, he was captured and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he was ordered to write and direct a pro-Nazi propaganda film, a staged documentary intended to convince the world that Jews were being well-treated in concentration camps. Eventually, he was sent to Auschwitz, where he was killed. Shot on location in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague, PRISONER OF PARADISE follows Kurt Gerron's career and remarkable odyssey, offering a unique perspective on this extraordinary period. English actor Ian Holm, an Emmy nominee for MASTERPIECE THEATRE "King Lear," was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Chariots of Fire. He portrays Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings movies and has played Fluellen in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and Polonius in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet. Holm, who was knighted in 1998, appeared as lawyer Mitchell Stevens in The Sweet Hereafter.
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