HELL OF A TIME OR LIVING HELL? LIDA BAAROVA DENIED THE AFFAIR MANY OTHERS REMEMBER

THE GUARDIAN - OBITS 2000 : LIDA BAAROVA

Except: Like many of the Nazi elite, she and her German actor husband, Gustav Frohlich - with whom she had co-starred in her first German film Barcarole (1935) which had made her a household name - lived in a Berlin villa on the picturesque Wannsee, just three doors down from the Goebbels.  He ardently pursued her, entertaining her in his villa and labishing her with expensive gifts. When Frohlich, who had starred in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis found out, legend has it hat he challenged him to a duel.  Another story was that Frohlich's friends found Goebbels at Baarova's flat and beat him up.

Frohlich was briefly detained in a concentration camp, but it was Goebbels wife, Magda, who went to Hitler about her husband's behavior.  Hitler was furious, refusing Goebbels permission to divorce Magda and marry Baarova.  Instead, he commanded Goebbels never to see his mistress again.  Baarova fled to her native Prague, abandoning a glittering career.

Historians tell it slightly differently through the head of the Berlin police, Hitler ordered her extradition and banned her films.....