Henryk Szaro

Biography

Henryk Szaro (October 23, 1900 – August 8, 1942) was a film and theatre director, one of the most important creators of pre-war Polish cinema. After graduating from high school in Saratov, he studied in Petrograd at the Institute of Communication Engineers and at the school at the Alexandrinsky Theatre (Szaro himself claimed to have studied in Moscow under the supervision of Vsevolod Meyerhold). After graduating, he worked in theatres in Petrograd. In 1923, he moved to Berlin, where he became associated with the Russian emigre cabaret "Sinaja Ptitsa." With this cabaret, he arrived in Poland in mid-1924, then settled in Warsaw, where he became artistic director of the small theatre "Stańczyk." In 1927, he co-founded the Polish Association of Film Producers, and in 1929 became an honorary member of the French Union des Artistes Cinématographiques in Nice. In 1936, he left the Polish Film Association and founded the Association of Film Producers and Technicians. After the outbreak of war, he fled east and settled in Vilnius. In the first half of 1942, he returned to Warsaw and settled on Pańska Street in the ghetto. He was shot by the Germans during the liquidation of refugees from the east.