{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox person |name = Fritz Weiss |image = Petr Kien Bedřich Weiss.jpg |alt = |caption = |birth_date = {{Birth date|1919|9|28|df=y}} |birth_place = Prague, Czechoslovakia |death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|9|28|1919|9|28|df=y}} |death_place = Auschwitz-Birkenau, German-occupied Poland |other_names = |known_for = |occupation = Jazz musician and arranger }}
'''Fritz Weiss''' (Czech: '''Bedřich Weiss''') (28 September 1919 – 28 September 1944) was a Czech jazz musician and arranger, active in the first half of the 20th century. He was an organizer of jazz performances and an important participant in the musical life of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Weiss was murdered in the Holocaust.
==Biography==
=== Early years === [[File:Unterhaltungs Musik (poster from Theresienstadt concentration camp).jpg|thumb|200px|upright|A poster for a music performance of ''Fritz Weiss Quintet'' (among others) in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, created by K. Heřmann.]] Weiss was born into a middle-class German-speaking Prague family of Jewish origin. He became interested in jazz at an early age, and soon began to participate in the jazz life of Prague.<ref name=Doruzka>{{cite web|title=Jazzman Fritz Weiss navzdory osudu|url=http://www.holocaust.cz/cz2/resources/ros_chodes/2004/03/weiss|publisher=Holocaust.cz|author=Dorůžka, Lubomír|date=2 October 2008|accessdate=5 December 2009|language=cs|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717080324/http://www.holocaust.cz/cz2/resources/ros_chodes/2004/03/weiss|archive-date=17 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
He started to play violin, but later switched to trumpet. As a student of the ''Prague English Grammar School'' he became a member of the school orchestra called ''Swing Rhythm'', where he played first trumpet. Playing in the orchestra he met a significant exponent of Czech jazz, Karel Vlach.<ref name=Doruzka/>
Among the members of the orchestra were Germans, Czechs and Jews; the bandleader was Czech pianist Milan Halla. The situation changed in 1939, with the rise of Nazism. Some of the German musicians left the ensemble, because they did not want to play with Jews.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}
In 1939, Weiss moved to the newly founded ''Karel Ludvík Orchestra''. He played first trumpet, but his performing with the band was more and more problematic because of racial laws.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}
He was finally forced to leave the orchestra. However, he anonymously participated in the recording of gramophone records.<ref>Kuna (1990), pg. 287 (''"... Aranžoval pro ně skladby (například pro orchestry Emila Ludvíka a Karla Vlacha), někdy též s nimi tajně nahrával na gramofonové desky."'')</ref> As a member of the ''Karel Ludvík Orchestra'', Weiss became a bandleader and helped to organize rehearsals, but above all, he arranged the major part of the repertory of the ensemble.<ref name=Doruzka/>
The Jewish jazz musicians used to practice 1940–1941 in the Jewish Orphanage.<ref>Joža Karas. ''Music in Terezín, 1941-1945'' pg. 149</ref>
===Theresienstadt=== On the 4 December 1941 Fritz Weiss was sent, as part of the second Aufbaukommando, to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.<ref name=Vaughan /> He was on transport J that took 1000 people from Prague to Theresienstadt. He took part in musical events held in the camp, and he even continued his collaboration with orchestras outside of the camp.<ref name=Doruzka /><ref name=Vaughan /> With the help of Czech police officers he managed to obtain music paper and scores needed for arranging jazz compositions.<ref>Kuna (1990), p. 288 (''"... Bylo to hlavně zásluhou českých četníků v Libochovicích, kteří hlídali terezínské vězně a zprostředkovávali tajný styk ghetta s okolím."'')</ref> He later secretly sent his arrangements out of the camp.<ref name=Vaughan>{{cite web| title=Fritz Weiss and a series of miraculous wartime jazz recordings | url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/46660 | publisher=Czech Radio | author=Vaughan, David | date=26 October 2003 | accessdate=5 December 2009}}</ref> He collaborated mainly with Arnošt Kavka, the singer of the ''Karel Vlach Orchestra''.<ref name=Doruzka /> In Theresienstadt, Weiss founded his own quintet, active up to August 1944. In 1943 he also became an artistic leader and arranger of the Theresienstadt Dixieland ensemble called Ghetto Swingers. Both bands collaborated in various performances and the number of musicians increased, especially following the arrival of Danish and Dutch Jewish jazz players.<ref>Kuna (1990), p. 289 (''"... Roman přivedl k souboru i další hudebníky, Dány a Holanďany, takže Ghetto-Swingers v posledních měsících své existence hrálo až v třináctičlenném obsazení."'')</ref> Weiss, together with Berlin pianist Martin Roman, composed and arranged more than thirty new compositions for the ensembles. The most popular composition was the jazz arrangement of the children's opera Brundibár, originally composed by Hans Krása.<ref>Kuna (1990), p. 289 (''"... Weissovou nejslavnější úpravou byla parafráze melodií z Krásovy dětské opery Brundibár ..."'')</ref> In June 1944, during the visit of the Red Cross to the camp, the ''Ghetto Swingers'' were forced to participate in the propaganda performance organized by Kurt Gerron, coerced by the Germans to deceive the outside world.<ref>Kuna (1990), p. 290 (''"... musel se i Ghetto-Swingers předvádět v hudebním pavilónu na náměstí zkrášleného města."'')</ref> The ensemble also appeared in the propaganda movie ''The Fuhrer Gives a City to the Jews'', made during this event.<ref>DeCoste (2000), p. 80</ref>
In September 1944, Fritz Weiss's father was sent in the transport to the Auschwitz extermination camp. His son joined him and stayed with him during the selection.<ref name=Vaughan /> Both father and son were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.<ref name=Vaughan /> Fritz Weiss was murdered in Auschwitz on 28 September 1944, the day of his 25th birthday.<ref>Sources differ a bit about details of his death - Kuna and Vogel quote 4 September, while Dorůžka corrects their claim with information from the ''Jewish Museum in Prague''.</ref>
==Recordings== *''[http://www.radioservis-as.cz/katalog/zbozi.php?detail=1056 In Defiance of Fate. Compositions arranged by Fritz Weiss for the Emil Ludvík Orchestra. Unique recordings from 1940–41.]'' Jewish Museum in Prague, 2003. [CD]. ŽMP006.
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== *{{Cite book|title=Hudba na hranici života |last=Kuna |first=Milan |year=1990 |publisher=Naše vojsko; Český svaz protifašistických bojovníků |location=Prague |isbn=80-206-0069-8 |language=cs}} *E. Vogel; B. Marek: ''Za Bedřichem Weissem''. (republished in the album notes of the ''In Defiance of Fate'' CD without further details) {{in lang|cs}} *{{Cite book|title=The Holocaust's ghost: writings on art, politics, law, and education |last=DeCoste |first=F. C. |author2=Schwartz, Bernard |year=2000 |publisher=University of Alberta |location=Edmonton |isbn=978-0-88864-337-7 |pages=79–80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lLnBSq7YP0gC&pg=PA79}}
==External links== *[http://www.radio.cz/en/article/46660 Fritz Weiss and a series of miraculous wartime jazz recordings (Czech Radio)] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110717080324/http://www.holocaust.cz/cz2/resources/ros_chodes/2004/03/weiss Jazzman Fritz Weiss navzdory osudu (Holocaust.cz)]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Fritz}} Category:1919 births Category:1944 deaths Category:Czech people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Category:Czech Jews who died in the Holocaust Category:Musicians from Prague Category:Theresienstadt Ghetto prisoners Category:Czech jazz bandleaders Category:Czech jazz clarinetists Category:Czechoslovak civilians killed in World War II Category:People killed by gas chamber by Nazi Germany Category:Jewish jazz musicians Category:Ghetto Swingers members