Wiera Gran

Wiera Gran

Wiera Vera Gran (20 April 1916 – 19 November 2007) was a Polish singer and actress. Reputedly born as Weronika Grynberg, she was also known as Vera Gran and Mariol. 1937 married to Dr. Kazimierz Jezierski.

Wiera Gran had a low alto voice even in early 1934, when at the age of 17 when - using the pseudonym Sylvia Green - she made her first recording, the tango Grzech. She sang in the Cafe Paradis in Warsaw in the early 1930s. While most of her recordings are in the Polish language, she sang in Yiddish in the movie On a heym (Without a home) with Shimon Dzigan and Israel Shumacher.

She escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. In 1947, she was accused in Poland of collaboration with the Germans during World War II by Jonas Turkow and Adolf Berman. Władyslaw Szpilman said in the court to hear of her collaboration in "aryan" Warsaw during the war since August 1943. Marek Edelman (Kommendant of the Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw) said on 5.5.1945 (before the end of the war) that he knew of the collaboration of Wiera Gran with the Gestapo. He knew also that a death sentence was imposed against her by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa - AK), but Gran was not found, and therefore it did not come to an enforcement. Similar information reported by Irena Sendlerowa AK Wiera Gran later emigrated to Israel where she had to face similar accusations.

In 1950, she moved to France. She was associated with Maurice Chevalier's stage theater, Alhambra. She performed in Paris in the charity concert with Charles Aznavour. The first song which made her popular was composed in 1937 by Adolf Kurc (later known as Eddy Courts) to Gran's lyrics. She traveled to Poland in 1965. Some of her best known songs include "List", "Wir tańca nas porwał", "Gdy odejdziesz", "Trzy listy", "Fernando", "Cicha jest noc", "Varsovie de mon enfance", "Ma Patrie" and "Mazowiecki wiatr".