Abraham Icek Tuschinski

Abraham Icek Tuschinski (Polish Tuszyński , born May 14, 1886 in Brzeziny , Russian Empire , † September 17, 1942 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a Dutch cinema operator of Jewish-Polish origin. He is the builder of the Tuschinski Theater in Amsterdam, named after him . He died as a victim of the Holocaust in the Auschwitz extermination camp.

Life

Abraham Tuschinki was born in Brzeziny near Łódź . In 1904 he wanted to emigrate to the United States of America, but decided to stay in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam . Initially he worked as a tailor, later he opened a pension with his wife Mariam (Mania) Ehrlich, which was mainly visited by Eastern European Jews.

Tuschinski Theater in Amsterdam

In 1911 he opened the Thalia cinema in Rotterdam, followed by three more: the Cinema Royal , the Scala and the Olympia . A world-class cinema in Amsterdam was his big dream, which he was able to realize on October 28, 1921 with the opening of the Tuschinski Theater , a large cinema built according to plans by the architect Hijman Louis de Jong . Tuschinski is still considered the most important and well-known cinema in the Netherlands.

In 1923 Tuschinski opened his most luxurious cinema in Rotterdam, the Grand Theater , and in 1928 the Roxy Theater on the Kalverstraat shopping street in Amsterdam.

When Rotterdam was destroyed by German bombers on May 14, 1940, Tuschinski lost all of his cinemas in Rotterdam. After the German occupation of Amsterdam, the Tuschinski Theater was initially closed in order to continue to be "Aryanized" as a German state enterprise. Tuschinski was bankrupt.

On July 1, 1942, Tuschinski was taken to the Westerbork transit camp and then deported to Poland. He was murdered on September 17, 1942 in the Auschwitz concentration camp .

literature

• Henk van Gelder: Abraham Tuschinski . Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Amsterdam 1996, ISBN 90-388-2679-6
• Jessica Maria Goossens: Tuschinski, droom, legende en werkelijkheid. De geschiedenis van het theater . BZZTôH, The Hague 2002, ISBN 90-5501-967-4
• JMHJ Hemels: Tuschinski, Abram Icek (1886–1942) . In: Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland (BWN). Vol. 3. Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, The Hague 1989, ISBN 90-5216-006-6 ( full text )
• Nelleke Manneke, Arie van der Schoor: Het grootste van het grootste. Leven en werk van Abraham Tuschinski (1886–1942) . Voet, Capelle aan den IJssel 1997, ISBN 90-73647-28-2
• Saskia Smit: Het best van het best: a historically onderzoek naar de positie van Tuschinski's Passage Theater in Schiedam within zijn bioscoopconcern in the year . Utrecht University, 2006 ( full text )

Web links

• Abraham Icek Tuschinski (Digitaal Monument Joodse Gemeenschap in Nederland)