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Bronisław Huberman: From child prodigy to resistance fighter against National Socialism

Today, Bronisław Huberman (1882-1947), who in his day was the most famous Polish violinist in the world and who lived and gave concerts in Germany during the First World War and the 1920s, is largely known to the wider public as the founder of the Palestine Orchestra, which later gave rise to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Thanks to the orchestra that he founded in Tel-Aviv in 1936, Huberman managed to help between six hundred and one thousand Jewish musicians and their families from all around Europe emigrate to the British mandated territory of Palestine and, in doing so, saved them from the Holocaust. As a violinist, he was more or less forgotten after his death. In 2012, a documentary by the director Josh Aronson was released entitled “Orchestra of Exiles”, which retold the history of the orchestra and Huberman’s own story, and found international acclaim.

 

Bronisław Huberman, ca. 1928. Unknown photographer, Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection, Washington, DC
Bronisław Huberman, ca. 1928. Unknown photographer, Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection, Washington, DC
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Public Domain

Writings by Bronisław Huberman:

Aus der Werkstatt des Virtuosen = Aus der eigenen Werkstatt – Vortragszyklus im Wiener Volksbildungsverein, Leipzig, Vienna 1912

Mein Weg zu Paneuropa, in: Paneuropa, published by R.N. Coudenhove-Kalergi, second Edition, Issue 5, Vienna, Leipzig 1925, page 7-34 (also as special edition: Vienna 1925)

Vaterland Europa, Berlin 1932

 

Sources:

Die Kunst im Dritten Reich. Hubermans Verzicht. Ein Briefwechsel mit Wilhelm Furtwängler, in: Prager Tagblatt, 58th Edition, No. 214, dated September 13, 1933, page 3, Online resource: http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=ptb&datum=19330913&seite=3&zoom=33

Frederick T. Birchall: Huberman Bars German Concerts. Violinist Rejects an Appeal by Furtwaengler to Play With Berlin Philharmonic Again. Stresses Nazi Race Bias. Declares That the Elementary Preconditions of European Culture Are at Stake, in: New York Times dated 14 September 1933, page 11

Offener Brief an die deutschen Intellektuellen. Von Bronislaw Huberman [Open Letter to German Intellectuals, in: The Manchester Guardian dated 7 March 1936], in: Aufbau / Reconstruction, published weekly by The New World Club, New York City, Volume 10, No. 4 dated 28 January 1944, page 17, online resource: https://archive.org/stream/aufbau101944germ#page/n57/mode/1up

32 newspaper articles (mainly reviews and interviews) on Bronislaw Huberman from 1933-1947, Walter A. Berendsohn-Research Centre for German Exile Literature, Hamburg State and University Library Carl von Ossietzky, Hamburg, Signature PWJ I 1405

 

Anti-Semitic publications:

Brückner-Rock. Judentum und Musik mit dem ABC jüdischer und nichtarischer Musikbeflissener, begründet von H. Brückner und C.M. Rock, edited and expanded by Hans Brückner, Third Edition, Munich 1938, page 129

Lexikon der Juden in der Musik. Mit einem Titelverzeichnis jüdischer Werke. Compiled on behalf of the Reich leadership of the NSDAP based on official documents checked by the party, edited by Theo Stengel and Herbert Gerigk = Publications of the Institute of the NSDAP for the Investigation of the Jewish Question, Volume 2, Berlin 1940, column 117

Bronisław Huberman, ca. 1928. Unknown photographer, Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection, Washington, DC
©
Public Domain
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  • Fig. 1: The child prodigy, 1889

    Bronisław Huberman as a seven-year-old, 1889

  • Fig. 2: As a youth, ca. 1895

    Bronisław Huberman at a young age, ca. 1895 Unknown photographer, albumin print, 14.7 x 10.1 cm, Nationalmuseum Warsaw/Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Inv. No. DI 103634 MNW

  • Fig. 3: As a fourteen-year-old, 1896

    Bronisław Huberman as a fourteen-year-old, 1896 Photograph by R. Wilhelm, New York, Philip Hale Photograph Collection, Boston Public Library

  • Fig. 4: Bronislaw Huberman, 1900

    Bronisław Huberman as an eighteen-year-old, 1900

  • Fig. 5: Emil Orlik: Huberman, ca. 1915

    Emil Orlik: Portrait of Bronisław Huberman with violin, ca. 1915 Etching, 24.5 x 29.3 cm

  • Fig. 6: Lesser Ury: Huberman, ca. 1916

    Lesser Ury: Portrait of Bronisław Huberman, ca. 1916 pastel on board, 97.2 x 70.7 cm, Jewish Museum Berlin, Inv. No. GHZ 78/1/0

  • Fig. 7: “Vaterland Europa”, 1932

    Bronislaw Huberman: Vaterland Europa, Berlin 1932

  • Fig. 8: Open letter to Furtwängler, 1933

    Open letter from Bronisław Huberman to Wilhelm Furtwängler, Prager Tagblatt from 13 September 1933, Austrian National Library

  • Fig. 9: Einstein meets Huberman, 1936

    The physicist Albert Einstein meets Bronisław Huberman 1936 in his house in Princeton, New Jersey

  • Fig. 10: Toscanini rehearses with the Palestine Orchestra, 1936

    The Palestine Orchestra during a rehearsal under the leadership of Arturo Toscanini, presumably in December 1936
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