In early March 1933, Bruno Walter, one of Germany's most beloved and renowned conductors, had just returned to Berlin after a successful concert tour in the United States. "Prior to the destruction of the Mendelssohn statue, Jewish musicians were systematically expelled from concert halls and opera houses throughout German-controlled Europe. The great compositions of Salomon Sulzer, Jaques Offenbach, Erich Korngold, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg, Mendelssohn, and many others were also silenced throughout the Third Reich and Nazi-occupied Europe. This violent action clearly signaled that music by composers of the Jewish faith or tradition would no longer be performed in opera houses and concert halls. Regarding the specific persecution of Jewish composers before and during World War II, states, "On November 15, 1936, three years after Adolf Hitler came to power, the New York Times reported that the statue of Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig had been destroyed. These attempts, which ultimately failed, hauntingly echo the experience of many Jewish families during this time, and the story of the Mattes family, as told through their own words from 1938 to 1941, honors the memory of those who did not survive. Through family pictures, documents, maps, and first-hand accounts in letters written by members of the Mattes family, we learn of the couple's witness to the beginnings of the Holocaust, and their desperate attempts to escape Nazi Germany and join their children who found a home in the Quad Cities. The Witness to the Holocaust exhibit, on display at the German American Heritage Center through November 27, shares the story of Markus and Anna Mattes, a Polish-Jewish couple who moved to Mainz, Germany, in 1908 to raise their family.
Held in conjunction with the venue's exhibition Witness to the Holocaust: The Mattes Family Letters, Davenport's German American Heritage Center will, on October 28, host the in-person concert program Selections from Jewish Composers: Music from the Holocaust, an intimate recital that finds two members of the Mattes family – Daniel and Debbi – performing a selection of music from the Holocaust on cello and piano. German American Heritage Center, 712 West Second Street, Davenport IA
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