Zarah Leander was a Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. Leander began her career in the late 1920s, and by the mid-1930s her success in Europe, particularly in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, led to invitations to work in the United States. Leander was reluctant to relocate her children, and opted to remain in Europe, and from 1936 was contracted to work for the German Universum Film AG while continuing to record songs. Leander later noted that while her films were successful, her work as a recording artist was more profitable. As a result of her controversial choice to work for the state-owned UFA in Adolf Hitler's Germany, her films and song lyrics were viewed by some as propaganda for the Nazi cause, although she took no public political position. Leander was strongly criticised as a result, particularly in Sweden where she returned after her Berlin home was bombed during an air raid. Initially she was shunned by much of the artistic community and public in Sweden, and found herself unable to resume her career after the Second World War. 

March 15th, 1907 in Karlstad as Zarah Stina Hedberg  /  Died:   May 23rd, 1981