A few days ago, I wrote about a June 24, 1932 antisemitic incident at the University of Vienna that Viktor Kornmehl tried to quell. Only a few months later, on October 26,1932, another incident brought Viktor back into the international Jewish press. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA):
JEWISH PHYSICIAN SERIOUSLY INJURED; JEWISH STUDENT DELEGATION COMPLAINS TO AUTHORITIES
Despite Nazi guarantees that peace and order would be maintained, new excesses against Jewish students took place at Vienna University this afternoon.
A Jewish physician, Dr. Moses Shendl, was seriously injured and had to be taken to a hospital after the police administered first aid.
Several Nazis were arrested. A Jewish student delegation, including Doctors Kornmehl and Alexander Teich were received by the University authorities this afternoon to whom they submitted their complaints against the terrorization which has been going on at the University in the last fortnight been heard in the United States with the Metropolitan Opera Company, was the target of a hostile demonstration by Nazis in Graz during and following a concert.
Tauber, who states he is an honorary chamberlain to the Pope, was attacked by the Nazis as a Jew.
“Germany Awake! Perish Judaea!” Hitlerites shouted during the concert. Later, as Tauber was walking through a park, a throng of Hitlerites stopped him and demanded proof that he is not a Jew.
“Leave me in peace. I am not a Jew. I am an artist with no political affiliations. I am an honorary chamberlain to the Pope. How can I be a Jew?” Tauber asserted.
I blogged about this incident before in a post called In Praise of Meandering. In trying to solve some puzzling elements of the story, I ended up exploring the life of Arnold Schoenberg who converted from Judaism and then converted back once he realized the Nazis considered him Jewish anyway.
But there is no meandering during a blogging challenge!
I was resolved to figure out the article’s cryptic elements this time: Who was Tauber, suddenly dropped into this narrative with only a last name? And what do the references to the Metropolitan Opera Company and Graz have to do with the problems at the University of Vienna?
It turned out, the JTA archives had conflated two short articles published in The Jewish Daily Bulletin on the same date. The one about the Jewish students ends with the phrase “in the last fortnight.”
The second one starts:
Richard Tauber, well known Austrian tenor who has been heard in the United States with the Metropolitan Opera Company, was the target of a hostile demonstration by Nazis in Graz during and following a concert.
It then continues to the end of the accidentally conflated piece, i.e., “‘I am honorary chamberlain to the Pope. ‘How can I be a Jew,’ Tauber asserted.”
Now things made sense, even though I hadn’t heard of Tauber (embarrassing as it is for a person with a 100% Viennese heritage, I’m not very well educated in classical music). From Wikipedia:
Richard Tauber (16 May 1891 – 8 January 1948) was an Austrian tenor acclaimed as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. Some critics commented that “his heart felt every word he sang.”
I never did find the Graz incident, but I learned that Richard Tauber’s father was half Jewish, which was good enough — or bad enough — for the Nazis (though Judaism, is in fact, matrilineal, i.e., if your mother is Jewish you are Jewish, no matter what your father is).
Richard Tauber died a natural death but I find his rhetorical question sad and a little naive. As Arnold Schoenberg discovered, converting to another religion or denying your heritage was useless. The Nazis decided who was Jewish.
It’s impossible to judge what I would have done under similar circumstances. But it’s not impossible to admire Viktor Kornmehl and Sigmund Freud, who embraced their Jewish heritage (if not, in Freud’s case, religion), Nazis be damned.
Speaking of Freud, the long promised post about an (almost) meeting between him and Viktor Kornmehl will finally appear tomorrow.
This is day 24 of the Family History Writing Challenge. I need more sleep.