Ilse Stanley
| Ilse Stanley | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Ilse Friedricke Davidsohn March 11, 1906 Gleiwitz, Germany |
| Died | July 19, 1970 (aged 64) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. |
| Other names | Ilse Davis (stage name) Ilse Intrator Ilse F. Stanley |
| Citizenship | German; American (1945) |
| Spouse(s) |
Alexander Intrator (m. 1932) Milton Stanley (m. 1946) |
| Children | Manfred Stanley (1932–2004) |
| Parent(s) | Magnus Davidsohn |
Ilse (Intrator) Stanley (née Ilse Davidsohn), (March 11, 1906 – July 21, 1970), was a German Jewish woman who, with the collusion of a handful of people ranging from Nazi members of the Gestapo to other Jewish civilians, secured the release of 412 Jewish prisoners from Nazi concentration camps between 1936 and 1938.
During that time she also helped countless others leave the country while it was still possible for German Jews to do so legally. This story was sketched publicly in 1955 on Ralph Edwards's television program, This Is Your Life, and is told in vivid detail in Stanley's autobiographical book, The Unforgotten, which was published in the United States in 1957.
Ilse was born in 1906 in the small mining town of Gleiwitz, Germany. The family moved to Berlin when her father, Magnus Davidsohn, was named as the main cantor at the new Fasanenstraße Synagogue being built in the Charlottenburg section of Berlin. The first time she entered the still-unfinished building, Ilse fell deeply in love with this synagogue (which she called "my House") and her life became thoroughly entwined with this synagogue. As a child of six she had the honor of presenting flowers to the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm, when he came to dedicate the new temple, which opened on August 26, 1912.
Ilse graduated from the Auguste-Victoria-Schule (in Charlottenburg) at the age of fifteen. After graduation she continued to study theatre history and theatre science at the Theatre Science Institute and at the Berlin University, while working part-time as a bookkeeper and office manager. Later she studied acting and directing at the Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater (Berlin) and elsewhere. Using the stage name "Ilse Davis", her primary interest was in acting on the stage, although she also played bit parts in several films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Her interest and ambition broadened to include directing and producing, and in 1929, just after turning twenty, she opened her own theatre organization. In this endeavor she handled everything from theatre production, promotion and publicity, to public relations; she also ran an Academy where entrants were taught acting, directing, and production.
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