How Jewish People Twice Saved a Circus and How Circus People Helped Save the Jews
(Left to Right) Professor Joe Goldblatt and Nancy Lynner
as The Wonder Company circa 1977
Professor Joe Goldblatt
My father owned a small hardware store in Dallas, Texas and one of his customers was the Gil Gray International Circus whose winter quarters were nearby. The circus purchased much of their hardware from Papa. One day Papa suggested to Mr Gray that his local Kiwanis Club could sell tickets for one of the annual circus performances at the State Fair of Texas. Mr Gray quickly agreed and papa went to work selling tickets.
Unfortunately, a rare Texas snow storm prevented the ticket buyers from attending the performance and I recall papa scanning the thousands of empty seats in the arena and leaning over the rail in front of him to tell Mr Gray he could cancel the performance if he wished. Gray looked up at Papa and said “Cancel? Never! However, your people better not start a fight because there are more people in the circus than there is in the audience!”
These early memories of attending the circus led to my fascination with the art form and I later attended circus performances all over the world as well as with my wife perfromed mime, became producers of circus performances, and twenty years ago we eventually moved to the Festival capital of Europe that is one of the world’s largest circus venues each summer during the annual Fringe Festival , Edinburgh, Scotland.
Forty years after that early performance of the circus I was invited by the owners of Sells Floto concession company to serve as a consultant for them to increase sales of popcorn, floss, and other products at both the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Disney on Ice, both of which were produced by Irvin and Kenneth Feld. I travelled to four cities to help increase sales and grow profits and also was able to put my head under the tanbark and witness the camraderie and hard work of circus performers.
Perhaps that is when I became curious about how Jewish people were connected with the circus and that led me to discover how the Ringling Senior Performance Director and world renowned tiger trainer Heinz ‘Charly’ Bauman’s (1928 – 2001) family had helped rescue Jewish people from the gas chambers in Germany during World War II.
According to the Guardian newspaper “Bauman was born in Berlin and, as a child, appeared in a dozen German films. Although Bauman is a well recognised Jewish name there is no evidence that Charly practiced or identified as a Jew. However, during the second world war, his parents were thrown into German concentration camps after his father had helped a wealthy Jewish family flee to Spain. His father later died in a gas chamber, but his mother was allowed to return to Berlin, while Charly was held in an orphanage and later worked on an eastern German farm. He escaped this brutal regime, only to be drafted into the navy and captured by the Americans weeks before the end of the war.”
Since the middle ages Jewish people had thrived in the entertainment industry in Germany. Circus dynasties owned by Jews such as Circus Blumenfeld and Circus Stassburger managed to barely survive during World War II, however eventually they were forced to fold their tents. However, circus families in Europe took care of their own and provided a shelter and sanctuary for Jewish circus artists and their families.
According to Circopedia “When the Nazis took power, the Circus Althoff family began to harbor Jews in their traveling circuses, whether circus artists or people they took with them as simple employees. This was done very discretely, of course, and with the help of their amenable employees—who were, after all, members like them of the international, tightly knit circus community. Furthermore, for the Althoffs (and for many others in the circus world, where families are nearly always related to a degree) the “Jewish Question” was a very personal matter. Lenie Mark, Adele Althoff’s sister, was married to a Blumenfeld. When they had to subject their circuses to the many routine inspections conducted by the Gestapo and other Nazi authorities, Franz and Carola would hide their Jewish wards in a double wall built in the circus’s pantry wagon, while Adolf was famously known to quietly fetch his and tell them to “go fishing…”
Not all circus families were sympathetic to the Jews, however “In general, the European circus community, responding to an atavistic instinct of self-protection, took care of its own; many Jewish circus performers were able to find employment and protection in gentile-owned circuses in the parts of Europe that had fallen under German rule. In The Netherlands, for instance, circus impresario Frank Makennie took care of the Strassburgers, and served as a front to their re-emerging circus activities. But it was much more difficult in Nazi Germany. Yet whereas circus luminaries such as Carl Krone and Paula Busch, like many other prominent German entrepreneurs, chose to join the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in a move of self-preservation, Carola, Franz, and Adolf Althoff acted quite differently.”
Remarkedly, only 50 years later in 1995 Israel’s Ambassador to Germany honoured Adolf Althoff as a member of the Righteous Among the Nations to recognise the courageousness and bravery of saving Jewish people.
As the bombing intensified during the war years, Carola Althoff Williams married Harry Williams and their circus dynasty grew with the establishment of Circus Williams that later led to an accidental the meeting of Carola’s son Gunther Gebel Williams and Charly Bauman. One may only wonder if they ever discussed their families role in helping the Jewish people survive during World War II.
One of the most promiment modern day Jewish circus families was Irvin and Israel Feld who were in the 1960’s American promoters of Beatles and other musical group concerts. The Felds purchased the Ringling circus not once but twice in order to save it from liquidation. However, due to a combination of challenges incuding changing audience profiles and tastes and the banning of performing animals in many US States, the Felds were in 2017 finally forced to close the Ringling show.
In Judaism there is a strong value entitled Tikkun Olam which literally means to repair the world. Jewish people do this through the practice of tzedakah which is giving charity or performing chartiable acts. The Felds were widely known for their philanthropy and generosity both within Jewish causes and through many other charities. Perhaps that is one of many reasons why Kenneth Feld, son of the original founder Irvin, along with his daughters, eventually revived the show in 2024 with a new animal free production entitled The Greatest Show on Earth that is now on tour. Like their father and grandfather they may have known they had a responsibility to once again save the circus for future generations.
Whilst during World War II German circus impressarios such as the Althoff’s and Carola Williams risked their lives to save the Jewish people, a Jewish family named Feld risked their economic future by leaving The Beatles to save The Greatest Show on Earth.
As the world now appears to be at sixes in sevens, perhaps with Jewish, Ukranian, Palestinian and other families suffering from the horrors of war once again, I have no dought that somehow, somewhere, once again Jewish people shall continue to save the circus and circus people shall provide safe harbour for those in need.
Perhaps that is why when the large cast of Ringling’s The Greatest Show on Earth raise their combined voices to sing their opening number it is entitled “Welcome to the Show”.
Professor Joe Goldblatt is Emeritus Professor of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the author, co – author, and editor of 40 books in the field of planned events. Joe and his wife Nancy were professional mimes in the 1970’s and performed at festivals and in theatres throughout the world. He also became a producer of live events featuring circus performers such as The Fearless Bauers and many others. His views are his own. For more information about his views visit www.joegoldblatt.scot
References
Charly Bauman, Obituary, The Guardian, 16 March 2001 https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/mar/16/guardianobituaries2
Circopedia, Circus Williams http://www.circopedia.org/Circus_Williams
The Greatest Show on Earth https://www.ringling.com/opening-number-extended-sneak-peek/