The play "Jacobowsky und der Oberst" by Franz Werfel opened in Basil, Switzerland in the early 1940s. The American version "Jacobowsky and the Colonel" opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York on 14 March 1944 and closed in 10 March 1945 after 417 performances. The opening night cast included Annabella, Louis Calhern as the Colonel, Oskar Karlweis as S.L. Jacobowsky, Harold Vermilyea as a Gestapo Official and J. Edward Bromberg as Szabuniewicz.