14e. The tenor Erich Fischhof and his escape to Switzerland

The piano reduction of the opera Carmen bears the stamp of Erich Fischhof. This sheet music print was handed over to the ub.mdw* in May 1973 by Wolfgang Steinbrück (1907–1991), a professor of vocals at the mdw* and vocal teacher at the mdw*, after his retirement.
 

Erich Fischhof was born on 3rd. September 1913 in Vienna and grew up in humble circumstances. A merchant by trade, he pursued vocal training in the opera class of the New Vienna Conservatory before the “Anschluss” of Austria in March 1938 and had been, among other things, a chorister at the Kluckytempel synagogue in the 20th district.

His first escape attempts to Brno and Copenhagen shortly after the “Anschluss” failed. On 24 June 1938, he managed to leave Berlin for Zurich. He had to leave his sheet music prints at his parents’ home in Vienna. Fischhof’s parents, who came from Jewish Orthodox families, stayed behind in Vienna. Berthold Fischhof (1879–1942) died in April 1942. Two months after his death, Julie Fischhof (1888 – died following deportation on 05.06.1942) was deported from a “Sammelwohnung” to the Izbica Ghetto. She was murdered in the Holocaust.

As early as 1938, Erich Fischhof was engaged as a concert and opera singer in the Kursaal in Bern. Although he had to work in refugees labour camps (Arbeitslager für Emigranten) from 1940 to 1942, he performed as a tenor in the theatres in Lucerne and Bern. But he also performed in concerts in the labour camps. From 1942, he was a tenor in the choir of the City Theatre Bern for 30 years. He met his future wife, Nanny Barth (1901–1997), as early as 1941. She worked as a social worker for Jewish organisations in Switzerland. After moving from Bern to Zurich in 1971, he worked as a librarian at ETH Zurich. Erich Fischhof died on 15 March 1988 in Zurich.

Up until 1942, Erich Fischhof had been requesting his mother send him some of his sheet music – what she did not succeed in doing. It is likely that his parents had had to sell some of it due to financial difficulties. The sheet music print of Carmen is deemed to have been stolen property and is to be returned to its rightful heirs.

In 1991, Nanny Fischhof donated the “Nanny and Erich Fischhof Prize”, which is awarded every two years to people who campaign against anti-Semitism and racism.