Actor Felix Bressart, resident in the USA since 1938 and a client of the Paul Kohner Agency, had drawn the winning ticket: a six-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) which now awaited his signature. He would be able to practise his profession in Hollywood and earn enough money to live – more than many emigrants from Germany could hope for. Numerous colleagues relied on the support of such bodies as the European Film Fund. Nonetheless, Bressart was clearly concerned by his contractual obligations.

The questions which he listed for his agent reveal the misgivings which on the one hand related to his own artistic freedom, but on the other hand represented highly personal concerns amid concrete geopolitical conditions: was he free to work for other studios in his downtime, or conversely, would MGM be able to lend him out to other studios without his approval? Could they force him to travel to England or other warring countries in Europe for film shoots? And finally, could they compel him to appear in anti-Nazi films when he still had relatives in Germany? Kohner’s answers are brief, and sobering. The contract with MGM offered little room for manoeuvre, and even an anti-Nazi film couldn’t be discounted. Bressart signed – and in 1942 he appeared as the Polish actor Greenberg in Lubitsch’s comedy To Be or Not To Be, one of his most successful roles.