Największy z największych – Abraham I. Tuschinski (1886-1942)
The Greatest of the Great – Abraham I. Tuschinski (1886-1942)

Summary/Abstract: Abraham Icek Tuschinski was born in Brzeziny near Łódź on 14 May 1886. He was a Dutch businessman of the Jewish-Polish descent. While immigrating to the United States in 1904 he decided to remain in Rotterdam. Fascinated by the magic of the cinema he raised money to fulfill his dream – a movie theatre of his own. He opened his first cinema in 1911. His most luxurious cinema, the Grand Theater in Rotterdam, was opened in 1928. The jewel in his ‘cinema crown’ was the Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam, opened on 28 October 1921. The design of this building represents a unique mixture of three modern styles: Amsterdam School, Art Nouveau and Art Déco. When World War II broke out, Tuschinski lost all his cinemas in Rotterdam when the city was bombed on 14 May 1940. During the Nazi occupation he was deprived of the rest of his property. In July 1942 Tuschinski was transported to the Westerbork concentration camp in the northeast of the Netherlands, and from there to Auschwitz, where he was murdered on 16 September 1942. The Tuschinski Theater in Amsterdam was restored to its former glory in 1998-2002. It is located at Reguliersbreestraat and is the most unique and attractive cinema in Amsterdam.

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