Fritz Weiss

Fritz Weiss (Czech: Bedřich Weiss) (28 September 1919 - 28 September 1944) was a jazz musician and arranger, active in the first half of the 20th century. He was an organizer of jazz performances and an important participant in the musical life of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Weiss was one of the victims of the Holocaust.

Biography

Early years

Weiss was born into a middle-class German-speaking Prague family of Jewish origin. He became interested in jazz at an early age, and soon began to participate in the jazz life of Prague. He started to play violin, but later switched to trumpet. As a student of the Prague English Grammar School he became a member of the school orchestra called Swing Rhythm, where he played first trumpet. Playing in the orchestra he met a significant exponent of Czech jazz, Karel Vlach. Among the members of the orchestra were Germans, Czechs and Jews; the bandleader was Czech pianist Milan Halla. The situation changed in 1939, with the rise of Nazism. Some of the German musicians left the ensemble, because they did not want to play with Jews. In 1939, Weiss moved to the newly founded Karel Ludvík Orchestra. He played first trumpet, but his performing with the band was more and more problematic because of racial laws. He was finally forced to leave the orchestra. However, he anonymously participated in the recording of gramophone records. As a member of the Karel Ludvík Orchestra, Weiss became a bandleader and helped to organize rehearsals, but above all, he arranged the major part of the repertory of the ensemble. The Jewish jazz musicians used to practice 1940-1941 in the Jewish Orphanage.