Klara Strenger

Claire Rommer was born as Klara Romberger in Berlin, Germany, in 1904. Although her parents had sent her to a boarding-school she defied the opposition of her family and attended the famous Max-Reinhardt-Schule in Berlin. Almost 17-years old, she debuted as a temporary assistant at the Neuen Volkstheater (New People's Theater) and the Volksb¨hne (People's Stage). As a soubrette, she later appeared repeatedly in operettas and comedies on the Berlin stage, especially at the Lustspielhaus (Comedy House). In the season of 1925/1926 she was committed to the Vereinigten B¨hnen (United Stages). However she became best known as a film actress. She appeared as a lover or a salon lady in dozens of silent films of the 1920’s. Rommer made her film debut in Wem nie durch Liebe Leid geschah/Those Who Never Suffered From Love (1922, Heinz Schall) starring Johannes Riemann. With a light touch she then played leading and supporting roles in such films as Menschen und Masken/People and Masks (1923, Harry Piel), Die eiserne Braut/The Iron Bride (1925, Carl Boese) opposite Otto Geb¨hr, Qualen der Nacht/Torments of the Night (1926, Kurt Bernhardt aka Curtis Bernhardt) with Ernö Verebes, Herkules Maier (1927, Alexander Esway) and Kinderseelen klagen euch an/Children’s Souls Accuse You (1927, Kurt Bernhardt) with Carla Bartheel.

When the sound film was introduced, Claire Rommer also did vocal numbers. She played successfully in the productions Aschermittwoch/Ash Wednesday (1930, Johannes Meyer), Der Walzerkönig/The Waltz King (1930, Manfred Noa) opposite Hans St¨we, Es geht um alles/It’s About Everything (1932, Max Nosseck) with Luciano Albertini, and Tausend f¨r eine Nacht/A Thousand for One Night (1933, Max Mack). In 1934 she appeared on stage in the Revue Scala – etwas verr¨ckt (Scala - A Little Crazy) in Berlin at the Scala Theater, when her film and stage career suddenly ended because of the seizure of power by the Nazis. In 1927 she had married the Jewish entrepreneur Adolf Strenger.

In July 1938 she was excluded from any activity in the German film industry on the grounds that she probably was not Aryan too.

The couple ultimately left Europe through luck and the compassion of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul stationed in Bordeaux, France, who heroically defied his home government. Portugal was officially neutral in WWII but was under the dictatorial rule of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, who issued "Circular 14″ to diplomats, denying safe haven to refugees, specifically stateless people, Jews, and Russians. Faced with thousands of such people at the door of the Portuguese consulate, Aristides de Sousa Mendes bravely issued approximately 30,000 visas over just a few days. Each person who got a Portuguese visa got safe passage through Spain to Lisbon, from where they could then travel elsewhere. This act cost Mendes his job, his family home, and his family honor, which took decades even to begin to rectify.

In 1940 she emigrated with her husband from France via Lisbon to the USA.

Klara and Adolf ended up in the United States, emigrating July 31, 1940 and arriving August 2, 1940. The couple was still together for a review of their citizenship and plea to not have residency strictures applied to their request for naturalization in 1950 (in which it was mentioned that Mr. Strenger was then in the import/export business, and that the couple had no children). They won some status in this case due to Mr. Strenger's having served as an expert to the US government without fee during WWII, and in fact, Mr. Strenger authored a 1943 book entitled "Insight Into the Nazi Industrial War Machine". The couple's request for relief was granted.

Some time after that divorce apparently followed, and Klara was reportedly later married to a wealthy gent in the meat industry. Little is known about this part of her life, and additional information is very welcome. This story of her remarriage is rampant on the Internet, but I can find no supporting data for it; even her death certificate lists her as "Claire Rommer Strenger" and "Klara Rommer".

Klara died at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in Chelsea, London, England, from pneumonia.