Re: Ernst Dohnanyi

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

The truth in such matters is hard to tell, and may ultimately be 
unascertainable.  But, fwiw, and hoping it's helpful:

from BAKER'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF MUSICIANS, 7th ed. (ed. by the 
redoubtable Nicolas Slonimsky):

one of [D's sons] "was executed for his role in the abortive [alas--rlc] 
attempt on Hitler's [y"s] life.

"At the war's end rumors were rife that D used his influence with the Nazi 
overlords in Budapest to undermine the position of Bartok and other 
liberals, and that he acquiesced in anti-Semitic measures.  But in 1945 the 
American occupation authorities exonerated him of all blame; even some 
prominent Jewish-Hungarian musicians testified in his favor."

and from NEW GROVE (1980):

>From 1939, much of [D's] time was devoted to the fight against growing Nazi 
influences [?--not sure of that word from my notes].  By 1941, he had 
resigned his directorial post at the Budapest Academy rather than follow 
[i.e., implement, apparently] the anti-Jewish legislation.  In his 
orchestra, he succeeded in keeping on all Jewish members until two months 
after the German occupation of Hungary, when he disbanded the ensemble....

D was criticized either from the Left or from the Right for most of his 
deeds and from his student days on....

The accusations leveled against him always took the form of rumors.  This 
and the magnitude of the so-called charges (never substantiated) made it 
impossible for D to defend himself.


FWIW--But as my rebbe used to say, "Who knows?"

--rlc




>From: "Joel Epstein" <yoel (at) netvision(dot)net(dot)il>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Ernst Dohnanyi
>Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 10:06:35 +0300
>
>I always thought that the Hungarian composer Ernst Dohnanyi was a virulent
>antisemite, and that many Holocaust survivors refused to play his music.
>But someone sent me a clipping from program notes that claimed the
>opposite - that he was anti-Nazi and worked to save Jews before he was
>forced to flee Hungary to the US for his anti-Nazi activities.
>
>What is the truth?
>
>yoel epstein
>etses gibbers consultants
>yoel (at) netvision(dot)net(dot)il
>pob 8516
>moshav magshimim 56910
>israel
>972-3-9333316
>972-52-333316
>972-3-9338751 (fax)
>
>

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