Chaja Goldstein was born in a Polish ghetto, in the town of Rypin in 1908. […] When she was ten years old, Chaja moved to Berlin with her Orthodox parents, brother Eli and baby sister Sally, fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe.
She made her debut in Berlin in 1931 as Hanna Goldstein with dances such as Der reiche und der arme Jude and the Hebräische Lied. The Berliner Tageblatt praised her performances. Shortly afterwards she also performed in the Kaftan, a small Jewish theater on Kurfürstendamm, where she sang Yiddish songs. Over the next few years Goldstein grew into a famous dancer and singer, connecting the Yiddish folk culture of her childhood with modern Western culture. She soon led a lavish life in Berlin’s artistic avant-garde circles. She lived with the Hungarian painter György Kepes (1906-2001) and had a love affair with the Dutch artist Wijnand Grays (1906-1995).
In 1933, Chaja Goldstein fled to the Netherlands as a result of the rise of the Nazi party. In April 1933 she appeared for the first time under the name ‘Chaja Goldstein’ on the stage of the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Rotterdam Studio 32, with her Yiddish dances and songs. [quoted from Huygens Instituut]
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