World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbasePavel Haas was born in Brno, Kingdom of Bohemia, part of the Austria–Hungary, to a Czech Jews Zikmund, a shoemaker, and Olga (née Epstein). He began studying music at the age of 14, and went on to advanced studies in composition. He married Sona Jakobson, widow of Russian linguist Roman Jakobson, in 1935. He composed several pieces of music of various types (symphonies, choral pieces, chamber music, etc.) while working at his father's shop; some of his works gained fame. After German annexation of Czechoslovakia, he legally divorced his wife, knowing the Germans would soon be after musicians and other figures in Czechoslovakian culture, hopeful that the divorce would put blur the connection of his wife and his daughter from himself. In 1941, his prediction came true as he was arrested and deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. At the camp, he wrote at least eight compositions. In 1944, just prior to a Red Cross visit, the Germans staged Theresienstadt as a detention camp and made a propaganda film. In the film, the prisoners enjoyed relatively leisurely lives; Haas was seen conducting his Study for Strings (which is among his best-known works today). After the Red Cross had left, 18,000 prisoners from Theresienstadt, including Haas, were transferred to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was murdered in a gas chamber at Auschwitz in Oct 1944.

Pavel Haas Timeline