Born on January 21, 1894, in Munich, the mezzo-soprano received vocal training in her hometown and made her debut in 1925 at the Würzburg Stadttheater. From there, she went to Gera in 1929 and then to Erfurt. In August of 1933, after most of the Jewish ensemble members were dismissed, General Director Heinrich Strohm hired her at the Hamburg Stadttheater. He knew and respected the versatile singer from her time at the Würzburg Opera, which he himself had led from 1926 until 1927.
But because her father was Jewish, Hedy Gura was considered a “half-Jew”, jeopardizing her engagement from the very beginning. Until 1937, she was permitted to perform with “special permission” from the Reich Chamber of Culture, which she was to renew every year. Two factors are likely to have been responsible for this form of precarious protection. First, her son had been a member of the Hitler Youth since 1931 and joined the SS in 1932. Second, she had the support of General Director Strohm as well as Hamburg’s National Socialist elite, including Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann. With this protection, Gura received a permanent exemption in 1937, permitting her to stay at the Hamburg Stadttheater. Other members of her family weren’t as fortunate: after the war, her sister described having survived three years of imprisonment at a concentration camp, while her brother was murdered at one.
Hedy Gura apparently managed to endure this extreme strain. She became a favorite among audiences and gave over 3,000 performances before stepping away from the Hamburg stage in 1954, after which she worked as a voice teacher. Hedy Gura died on March 18, 1967, in Hamburg.
1894 Munich
1967 Hamburg