Lisl Frank

Who was Lisl Frank?

Lisl Frank achieved success as a singer, dancer and actress before World War II.

Born Alice Frankl in Prague, she met her future husband, Otto Aufrichtig in 1933 when he took over as director of the Neues Stadttheater in Teplitz-Schonau [Teplice] where she was appearing as a singer, dancer and actress. Their Teplice stage partnership proved to be a winning combination and after marrying in Czechoslovakia, she and Otto moved to his home city of Vienna.

With the Nazis rise to power, they curtailed their own success in Vienna and made the decision to move to the Netherlands, where they became members of the Fritz Hirsch Operetta in Den Haag. They were an instant success, staying on with the company until 1938. When they left, it was to become members of a new opera company, the Plaza Theater in the Hollandsche Schouwburg, which had been founded in Amsterdam. They were the stars of the company but their success could not prevent the Plaza Theater from going bankrupt.

They immediately bounced back with a new opera company in the Hollandsche Schouwburg in The Capital, led by Otto Frohn Knecht, in which they co-starred with celebrated artists of the period, Sylvain Poons and Kurt Gerron. This, too, was destined not to last. Following German occupation of the Netherlands and the tight restrictions forced upon Jews, the Nazis decreed in November 1941 that the Hollandsche Schouwburg would be renamed the Joodsche Schouwburg [Jewish Theatre], and star Jewish performers no longer permitted to appear before non-Jewish audiences.