Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Larry Wayne - 2005

In the ghetto?

In the ghetto and, and, and, and in an apartment, you know. I still remember it. I still, it became my favorite symphony that I never forget in my life because every time I hear it I get goose pimples because I heard it performed right in the ghetto.

And they're all Jewish musicians.

All Jews, yeah, oh yeah. One was a famous Jewish musician, I forgot his first name, ???. He was nat...internationally known. And the Germans didn't matter who you were, you know. If you eat up knowledge and see famous composers died in the camps. They didn't care because that you were Einstein. If Einstein would have been there, he probably, they would have put him in...

No question, uh...

You know, I just researched, one of my favorite, favorite, favorite singers, uh, his name was Joseph Schmidt. Uh, he's a tenor, he was, like, on a rank like Pavarotti or Caruso, you know. But he had one thing, he couldn't really perform but he was, he was about this big. But he performed on the stage and concerts and everything else, uh, recording. Now he was internationally known. He was in United States performing. They put him in camp just like anybody else. They didn't care who he was.

There's a famous, uh...

There was no escape unless maybe somebody could buy you out for money, which I don't know much about it but there were cases.