“Selections from Jewish Composers: Music from the Holocaust" at the German American Heritage Center -- October 30.
Sunday, October 30, 2 p.m.
German American Heritage Center, 712 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Held in conjunction with the venue's exhibition Witness to the Holocaust: The Mattes Family Letters, Davenport's German American Heritage Center will, on October 28, host the in-person concert program Selections from Jewish Composers: Music from the Holocaust, an intimate recital that finds two members of the Mattes family – Daniel and Debbi – performing a selection of music from the Holocaust on cello and piano.
The Witness to the Holocaust exhibit, on display at the German American Heritage Center through November 27, shares the story of Markus and Anna Mattes, a Polish-Jewish couple who moved to Mainz, Germany, in 1908 to raise their family. Through family pictures, documents, maps, and first-hand accounts in letters written by members of the Mattes family, we learn of the couple's witness to the beginnings of the Holocaust, and their desperate attempts to escape Nazi Germany and join their children who found a home in the Quad Cities. These attempts, which ultimately failed, hauntingly echo the experience of many Jewish families during this time, and the story of the Mattes family, as told through their own words from 1938 to 1941, honors the memory of those who did not survive.
Regarding the specific persecution of Jewish composers before and during World War II, Encyclopedia.com states, "On November 15, 1936, three years after Adolf Hitler came to power, the New York Times reported that the statue of Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig had been destroyed. This violent action clearly signaled that music by composers of the Jewish faith or tradition would no longer be performed in opera houses and concert halls. The great compositions of Salomon Sulzer, Jaques Offenbach, Erich Korngold, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg, Mendelssohn, and many others were also silenced throughout the Third Reich and Nazi-occupied Europe.
"Prior to the destruction of the Mendelssohn statue, Jewish musicians were systematically expelled from concert halls and opera houses throughout German-controlled Europe. In early March 1933, Bruno Walter, one of Germany's most beloved and renowned conductors, had just returned to Berlin after a successful concert tour in the United States. Walter was informed of 'certain difficulties' should he decide to follow through with a previously scheduled guest appearance in Leipzig. The management of the concert hall, however, decided to go ahead with Walter's appearance. A few hours before the doors opened, however, the performance was banned. A week later, Walter was to conduct a concert in Berlin's Philharmonic Hall. Again, he was advised to cancel the performance in order to avoid 'unpleasant occurrences.' What the Nazis meant by that became clear on April 1, 1933, when Nazis boycotted Jewish stores, defaced the storefronts of Jewish-owned businesses, and publicly blackmailed those who continued to shop in stores owned by Germans of the Jewish faith.
"From that point on, every week brought further governmental decrees that robbed Jews of their livelihood and their right to German citizenship. Between 1933 and 1939, more than 2,000 conductors, soloists, concert masters, singers, members of orchestras, and musicologists were banned or expelled from stages and teaching positions throughout Germany, Austria, and Poland because they were Jewish."
An afternoon program of compositions for piano and cello, Selections from Jewish Composers: Music from the Holocaust will be presented at the German American Heritage Center on October 30, participation in the 2 p.m. event is free with an RSVP, and more information is available by calling (563)322-8844 and visiting GAHC.org.
