Traitor in Germany – heroine in Israel

© Goethe-Institut

For that reason they still called her a traitor in Israel in 1960, but in Israel on the other hand they admired her as much for her courage as for her voice. So she was allowed to do something that nobody had been allowed to do before and sang songs from the Weimar Republic in her native language. At the request of her enthusiastic listeners she even performed the German army hit “Lili Marleen”. About which admittedly not everyone was enthusiastic.

In February 1966 Marlene Dietrich travelled back to Israel. There is also a photo of this visit resplendent on the cover of Haaretz. The mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek – who is originally from Vienna – literally sits at her feet. His political opponents in particular attacked him vehemently because of that. But the “most pleasing aspect of this episode”, Kollek wrote to Marlene Dietrich in a letter, is that he is in his son Amos’ good books as a result.

© Goethe-Institut

Amos, who would later become a film director, was “serving in a tank unit and so has enough courage to ask me to get your autograph. Could you do that please? It would very much help me to maintain my prestige as a father.”