Paul Weiss (violinist)
Paul Weiss , originally Paul Weisz , (born October 12, 1898 in Vienna , † October 18, 1967 in San Francisco ) was an American violinist, band leader, conductor and composer of Hungarian-Austrian origin. The soprano Eugenie Sendrey was a sister of this musician. Paul Weiss was a persecuted Jewish musician during the Nazi era.
Life
From 1911 to 1916 Weiss studied violin at the kk Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Gottfried Feist and Julius Stwertka . After the end of the Second World War , Weiss took up an intensive activity as a musician. He toured Switzerland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece, Poland, Egypt and in 1934 Ceylon.
At the time of the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, Weiss was not in Vienna. When he returned in March 1938, he immediately emigrated because of his endangerment as a member of a Jewish family. Supported by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee , Weiss traveled with his family, his wife and son, via Marseille to Shanghai. The Weiss family lived in Japanese-occupied Shanghai under ghetto conditions. Paul Weiss played classical music for dinner in night clubs. He also performed with local bands. In 1942 he had even founded his own band, even if the conditions for performances in Shanghai were becoming increasingly difficult due to the restricted mobility.
While Weiss' son Richard was able to move to the USA as early as 1947, where he studied and then emigrated to Israel, Paul Weiss and his wife had to stay in Shanghai until 1949. The Weiss couple were brought to Canada by American military forces in May 1949 in view of the impending takeover of power by the communists. After spending two years in Toronto, the Weiss couple finally settled in San Francisco. In 1956, they received US citizenship there.
In response to an application to the Austrian state, the Weiss family received relatively insignificant compensation payments from the “Austrian Aid Fund for Persecuted People Residing Abroad” in 1960 and 1961 for various reasons. Their economic situation was critical due to the generally difficult health of Paul Weiss. It is not known whether Weiss performed again as a musician from San Francisco. He died on October 18, 1967 in San Francisco. His wife then moved to Israel to live with her son.
Weiss' mother Franciska was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in August 1942 and died there on December 31, 1942. His father had died in 1921.
swell
- Sophie Fetthauer: Paul Weiss. In: Lexicon of persecuted musicians from the Nazi era. University of Hamburg, Institute for Historical Musicology, 2017, accessed on December 15, 2018 .
Web links
- Steven Swanson (via: Universität Hamburg: Institute for Historical Musicology): Photo of the Sendrey family with Paul Weiss (left). In: Lexicon of persecuted musicians from the Nazi era. Retrieved August 5, 2018 .
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Weiss, Paul |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Weisz, Paul |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American violinist, band leader, conductor and composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 12, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 18, 1967 |
| Place of death | San Francisco |