Weintraub’s Syncopators

In the 1920s, jazz was the hottest music in Berlin. Weintraub's Syncopators, a hugely successful jazz band whose virtuoso and comic performances electrified audiences in decadent Berlin, soon became one of the of most sought-after jazz ensembles. The band starred in several early sound films including The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich in 1930. When the Nazis forced them into exile because most of its members were Jews, the band toured Europe and the Far East. They eventually resettled in Australia in 1937 and continued to perform there until 1941 when, in a strange twist of fate, they were forcibly interned as enemy aliens.