A 104-year-old singer who was a favorite of Hitler took the stage in his Dutch hometown amid protests.
Johannes Heesters put on a concert Feb. 16 in Amersfoort for the first time since 1963, when he was booed off the stage by crowds who gave him the Nazi salute. Dozens of protesters as well as a handful of neo-Nazis showed up for last Saturday’s event, 35 miles east of Amsterdam.
Heesters was a very popular German-language singer and film star in the 1930s, and he held performances to boost the morale of German soldiers during World War II.
The cabaret singer, who resides in Germany’s Bavaria region, has said he knew nothing about the Holocaust, even though he visited the Dachau concentration camp in 1941.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
