Composer Joachim Mendelson was born #OTD in 1892. In the 1920s he joined the Association des Jeunes Musiciens Polonais in Paris then taught at the Warsaw College of Music. He was interned in the Warsaw ghetto, and murdered there in 1943. www.eda-records.com/...

Violinist and composer Stefan Frenkel was born #OTD 1902. Exiled to Switzerland in 1935, he became concertmaster in the Orchester de la Suisse Romande in Geneva. In 1936 he left for the US and until 1940 was concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera in NY. de.wikipedia.org/wik...

Composer, cabaret artist, pianist and singer Fritz Spielmann was born #OTD in 1906. Initially escaping to Paris, it took one and a half year's of travelling from Paris via Cuba to achieve exile in the USA. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

Musician and concertmaster Isy Geiger was born #OTD in 1886. In March 1938 he fled from Vienna to Poland and subsequently to Britain. He escaped capture by a German soldier by pretending to be a foreigner and was advised to leave the country immediately. www.mastersofmelody....

Violinist and conductor Henri Temianka translated and edited sensitive war documents with fluency in four languages. Through his connections there and from his performing career he was able to secure the release of his parents from Gurs in 1941. en.wikipedia.org/wik...

The Czech viola player Romouald Suessmann (born #OTD in 1914) studied violin with Ladislav Černý (of the Prague String Quartet). Suessmann was deported to Terezin on 17 Dec 1941. After the war he emigrated to Norway where he died in 1996. collections.ushmm.or...

Musician Michel Assael’s aspirations as a film composer were dashed when the Nazis invaded Greece and decimated the Sephardis of Salonica. He was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau with his sisters and parents in April of 1943. esefarad.com/new-man...

Composer and violinist Joseph Kaminski was born #OTD in 1903. Despite the growing anti-Semitism in Poland he led the Warsaw Radio Orchestra founded in 1935. In 1937 he emigrated to Tel Aviv and became concertmaster of the Palestine Orchestra. de.wikipedia.org/wik...

Austrian film and stage composer Charles Kalman (born #OTD in 1929) grew up in French and US exile after expulsion during the Anschluss of Austria in 1938. He studied music in NY and, like his father Emmerich, he also composed operetta. de.wikipedia.org/wik...

Max Deutsch (born #OTD in 1892) was a pupil of Arnold Schönberg and, in 1925, founded Der Yiddische Spiegel theater in Paris and performed many works by Schönberg, Webern and Berg. From 1940 to 1945 he fought in the Foreign Legion and survived the war. de.wikipedia.org/wik...

Paul Hindemith, one of the most successful composers of twentieth century Germany, had a relationship with the Nazi Party plagued by inconsistencies and paradoxes. He was born #OTD in 1895. holocaustmusic.ort.o...

Ironically, the Vichy anthem ‘Marechal, nous voilà!’ by Frenchmen, André Montagard and Charles Courtiouz, was a plagiarised version of ‘La Margoton du bataillon’ by Casimir Oberfeld (born #OTD), a Pole murdered in Auschwitz in 1945. holocaustmusic.ort.o...

Music theory, piano and composition teacher, composer, conductor and choirmaster Oswald Behrens was born #OTD in 1901. In March 1938 he was imprisoned in Fuhlsbüttler for "racial defilement". In Jan 1943 he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

Singer and revue artist Anni Frei (Anny Frey) was born in Vienna 15/11/1906. She survived Terezin and later returned to professional singing. She explained years later: "Singing has saved my life. And not only once." teplitz-theatre.net/...

Austrian conductor, teacher and music publisher Felix Greissle (born #OTD in 1894) was the son-in-law of Arnold Schönberg and who, in 1938, fled to the US with his family and settled in New York. de.wikipedia.org/wik...

Celebrated German violinist and Kapellmeister Ilja Livschakoff was born #OTD in 1903. After 1933 he was excluded from the RMK and banned from performing. He emigrated to Argentina, where he continued to work as Kapellmeister. de.wikipedia.org/wik...

Musician Sigmund Rattin was born #OTD in 1904. He was sent to Terezin where he played in Terezin band. On the 28 Sep 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered. www.geni.com/people/...

Composer Bernhard Paumgartner (born #OTD in 1887) was relieved of his duties as director of the Mozarteum by the National Socialists . He spent the war years as part of a research contract at the University of Vienna in Florence. de.wikipedia.org/wik...

Trained singer Hellmuth Blumenthal-Menthalov was born in Oranienburg #OTD in 1898. Under the stage name Hellmuth Menthalow, he sang and drummed with a number of bands. He was deported on 17 March 1943 from a transit camp to Theresienstadt. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

The gifted singer and pianist, conductor and composer, arranger and organizer Karel Salmon was born #OTD in 1897. In 1933 he left Germany for Palestine and became integral in bringing European culture to Israel. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

Actor and reciter Otto Bernstein was born #OTD in 1887 in Posen. Since his ban from acting in 1933, he staged plays in the Judische Kulturbund. He was deported with his wife to Auschwitz-Birkenau on Feb 26, 1943 and they were gassed soon after. www.frankfurt1933-19...

Composer Reinhard Oppel (born #OTD in 1878) hoped for a cultural renewal before Hitler came to power but in July 1933 openly demonstrated against the Nazi regime. He did not salute Hitler, refused to mention Hitler's name and refused to join the RMK. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

Actor and cabaret artist Fritz Benscher (born #OTD 1904) failed to flee to the US and joined the Judischer Kulturbund. In Jun 1943 he was sent to Terezin and in Sep 1944 to Auschwitz. In Jan 1945 he was transferred to Dachau and liberated on 1 May 1945. www.wallstein-verlag...

Pianist, organist, music teacher, musicologist and composer Frederick Breydert (born #OTD in 1909) fled Germany for Norway in 1937, then Belgium in 1939 and finally to the US in 1941. He composed at least 140 pieces but his early works are lost. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

Austrian pianist Paul Emerich was born #OTD in 1895. Between 1934 and 1939 he was the music director of the Jewish Institute for the Blind in Vienna. In 1939 he exiled to the USA and taught at the Institute for the Blind in NY and later private lessons. www.musiklexikon.ac....

Journalist, writer, resistance fighter and jazzman Jiží Žák was born #OTD in 1917. He started an underground jazz band while interned in Buchenwald and arranged concerts for troops after liberation in Apr 1945. holocaustmusic.ort.o...

Dick Kattenburg (born #OTD in 1919) was a Dutch Jewish composer who was murdered in Auschwitz age 24. He wrote about thirty songs including solo pieces, chamber music and orchestral works, rediscovered in 2004. en.wikipedia.org/wik...

American composer Ernst Bloch was not directly affected by the Holocaust but his music was considered degenerate by the Nazi regime. #OTD in 1933 he welcomed Arnold Schoenberg into exile in New York. www.ernestbloch.org/...

German émigré composer and conductor Konrad Bernhard (born #OTD in1900) composed film scores and was on the list of Jews and Jewish mixed races excluded from the RKK. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

In 1934 German mezzo-soprano Elena Gerhardt (born #OTD in 1883) left Germany for London with the help of Landon Ronald at the Guildhall School of Music and settled there with her husband. en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Conductor and author Emil Kahn (born #OTD in 1896) left his native Germany in 1933 arriving in the US in 1935. He led the Senior Orchestra of New York for 13 years and taught at Montclair State College until 1970. www.nytimes.com/1985...

Poet and songwriter Miriam Goldberg Harel was born #OTD in 1924. In the Łódź ghetto, she coped by writing prose and poetry in Polish. For her family and for the Gordonya Hakhsharah youth group, Miriam set many of her words to melodies and sang them. holocaustmusic.ort.o...

Violinist Eva Hauptmann was born #OTD in 1894. Despite intercession from Winifred Wagner she was expelled from the RMK in Aug 1935 then soon after the Vogt Conservatory. She survived but her mother was deported to Terezin on 25 June 1942. de.wikipedia.org/wik...

Composer Rudolph Karel (born #OTD in 1880) studied with Antonin Dvorak and Josef Klicka. In Mar 1943 he was arrested for his resistance activities and sent to Terezin where he composed on toilet paper using charcoal. He died from dysentery in Mar 1945. holocaustmusic.ort.o...

Poet/composer/lyricist Mira Spektor was born #OTD 1928 in Lithuania. In order to escape the pogroms, her family moved to Berlin just before Kristalnacht and escaped further to the US. en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Viennese orchestra violinist Arthur Nikolasch was born #OTD in 1888. After his possessions were stolen by Vermögensverkehrstelle he arrived in Terezin in Mar 1943 and played in the Terezin band. He was deported to Auschwitz in Oct 1944 where he perished. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

Susanne Hirzel was born #OTD in 1921. In late 1942, while a music student, she met Sophie Scholl, who called for resistance. She and her brother Hans were arrested and convicted in the 2nd "White Rose" trial. en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Czech musician Bedřich Bondy was born #OTD in 1889. He was sent to Terezin where he played in the municipal Terezin band. He was murdered 22 Feb 1943 in Auschwitz. www.holocaust.cz/en/...

Until 1936, Mieczyslaw Fledderbaum was the chief violinist in the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Throughout the 30s he was part of the “Polish Quartet”. In 1936 he left Poland and the Quartet for Mandate Palestine. He died #OTD in 1978. he.wikipedia.org/wik...

Cantor Eugène Adler was the son of teacher and cantor Simon Adler and the brother of cantor Hugo Adler. Eugène was arrested in Jarnac with his wife and two children on 8 Oct 1942 and #OTD 1942, they were deported to Auschwitz. They did not survive. holocaustmusic.ort.o...

Opera singer Marex Liven was born #OTD in 1908. He initially fled to Paris but after the Nazis came he escaped deportation in 1942 by fleeing to Switzerland. Although he survived, his mental health had suffered in the war and he sang no more. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

Musicologist and music critic Hans Keller was arrested by the Nazis and forced to leave Austria for England following the Anschluss in 1938. He died #OTD in 1985. Listen to a BBC recording telling of his escape. holocaustmusic.ort.o...

Austrian-American concert pianist Paul Wittgenstein was born #OTD in 1887. He lost an arm fighting in WWI and afterwards championed piano for the left hand. During WWII the Nazis charged him with 'racial defilement' and, in 1938, he fled to New York. en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Vilna poet Leyb Rozental was born #OTD in 1916. In the Vilna ghetto he became one of the most successful writers of musicals and theatre revues. He died in Klooga in Jan 1945, likely drowned in the Baltic Sea. holocaustmusic.ort.o...

Hungarian-American composer Jenő (Eugen) Zádor was born #OTD in 1894. On the outbreak of WWII he emigrated to the US, where he became a successful composer of film scores for Hollywood. en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Czech opera singer Marta Zuckerová was born #OTD in 1900. She sang in opera staged by Raphael Schachter in Terezin and was murdered in #Auschwitz in Oct 1944. www.holocaust.cz/en/...

Pianist, piano teacher, music school director and music critic Hans Baer was born #OTD in 1893. In Aug 1935, he was expelled from the RMK and banned from working. He fled to Italy until their race laws were instituted then fled again to the US. www.lexm.uni-hamburg...

German composer, musicologist and music teacher Siegfried Borris was born #OTD in 1906. He was expelled from his university and made unemployed by the KfDK. Allowed only to work as a private music teacher, he had his German citizenship revoked in 1935. de.wikipedia.org/wik...

Hans-Günther Beschorner was born Hans Rubinstein in Breslau. He was a trained piano teacher, music theorist and composer. According to Jürgen Göndör's research, he worked at the Jewish school in Coburg between 1935 and 1938 or 1939. http://news.bbc.co.u...

Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw was premiered by the Albuquerque Civic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kurt Frederick on November 4, 1948 holocaustmusic.ort.o...