Mozes Slager

Mozes Slager (born April 28, 1880 in Kampen , Netherlands ; died July 20, 1943 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a violinist who worked in Germany for many years.

Life

The merchant's son, who came from the Netherlands, attended the municipal music school in his home town of Kampen from 1896 to 1901 after secondary school. Since October 1900 Slager worked as a member of the Krefeld Municipal Orchestra. He then worked from October 1901 to April 1903 as a violinist in the Kaim Orchestra under Felix Weingartner in Munich. Until mid-July 1906 he played in the Heidelberg Municipal Orchestra. Slager was a second violinist in the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra from July 15, 1906. In the course of a general downsizing he was supposed to leave the orchestra in 1932, but it was not until the beginning of April 1933 that the acting opera director Carl Stueber sent him temporarily on compulsory leave. Intrigues against him - there were unproven allegations in the room that the foreigner Slager had continually uttered anti-German spitefulness during the First World War - however, did not work, and so he was appointed municipal chamber musician on November 27, 1933 at the suggestion of General Director Meissner. Slager was not finally released until March 31, 1935; a complaint against this decision was rejected by the Prussian interior minister in July of the same year.

In the spring of 1943 Slager was arrested because he is said to have concealed his Jewish origins from the food office and therefore his food cards had not been stamped with the letter "J". After a short “protective custody”, the musician was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where he perished on July 20, 1943. His wife was also a victim of the Holocaust. The name of Mozes Slager is listed on the plaque of the municipal theaters.

literature

• Judith Freise / Joachim Martini, Jewish musicians in Frankfurt 1933–1942, Frankfurt am Main 1990, p. 72 (Appendix).
• Bettina Schältke, theater or propaganda? The municipal theaters of Frankfurt am Main 1933–1945. Frankfurt am Main 1997, pp. 54, 83-85, 104-105, 446-447, 478.
• Friedrich Ebert Foundation (ed.), Between Exclusion and Destruction. Jewish musicians in Leipzig and Frankfurt a. M. 1933-1945. Booklet accompanying the exhibition of the same name by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Leipzig 1996, p. 62. Institute for City History Personal files 3802, 40813.
• Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks , p. 414. Berlin 2008 ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9

Web links

• Mozes Slager on ffmhist.de