Veit Harlan (22 September 1899 – 13 April 1964) was a German film director and actor. Harlan reached the highpoint of his career as a director in the Nazi era; most notably his antisemitic film Jud Süß (1940) makes him controversial. While viewed critically for his ideologies, a number of critics consider him a capable director on the grounds of such work as his Opfergang (1944). Life and career Harlan was born in Berlin, the son of the writer Walter Harlan and his wife Adele, nee Boothby. His elder brother Peter was a multi-instrumentalist and musical instrument maker. After studying under Max Reinhardt, he first appeared on the stage in 1915 and, after World War I, worked in the Berlin stage. In 1934 he starred in the Berlin premiere of Eugen Ortner's tragedy Meier Helmbrecht, but it was a critical disaster and he later described it as his lowest point as an actor. Shortly afterwards he directed his first play, the comedy Marriage on the Panke, at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. In 1922 he married Jewish actress and cabaret singer Dora Gerson; the couple divorced in 1924. Gerson later was murdered at Auschwitz with her family. In 1929, he married Hilde Körber, having three children with her, then divorcing her for political reasons related to the influence of Nazism. One of their children, Thomas Harlan, became a writer and director in his own right. In 1939, Veit Harlan married the Swedish actress Kristina Söderbaum, for whom he wrote several tragic roles that included dramatic suicide scenes, increasing their popularity with the German cinema audience. Harlan had two children with Söderbaum. Nazi era Film critic David Thomson asserts that Harlan, having just started directing in 1935, was able to attract Goebbels' attention only because so much directorial talent had emigrated from Germany after the Nazis had taken power. By 1937, Joseph Goebbels had appointed Harlan as one of his leading propaganda directors. His most notorious film was Jud Süß (1940), made for anti-Semitic propaganda purposes in Germany and Austria. In 1943 it received UFA's highest awards. Karsten Witte, the film critic, provided a fitting appellation for Harlan calling him "the baroque fascist". Harlan made the Reich's loudest, most colorful and expensive films. Postwar After the war Harlan was charged with participating in the anti-Semitic movement and aiding the Nazis. However, he successfully defended himself by arguing that the Nazis controlled his