Hier muß sich jeder alleine helfen“: Paula, Josef und Frieda Fruchter: Briefe einer Wiener Musikerfamilie aus dem Shanghaier Exil 1941–1949 (in German)

Sophie Fetthauer’s “Hier muß sich jeder alleine helfen“: Paula, Josef und Frieda Fruchter: Briefe einer Wiener Musikerfamilie aus dem Shanghaier Exil 1941–1949 (“Here everyone has to help themselves”: Paula, Josef and Frieda Fruchter: Letters from a Viennese musical family from exile in Shanghai 1941–1949) is now available in German….

Only very late in 1941 the Fruchter family fled from Vienna via Berlin, occupied Poland, the Soviet Union and Manchukuo to Shanghai shaken by war and colonial conflicts. By then, the city had already received around 18,000 mostly Jewish Nazi refugees, including an above-average number of musicians. Despite all the hardships, the Shanghai music life offered a wide range of fields of activity. Paula Fruchter (1896-1983; speaker teacher, pianist), her husband Josef (1900-1976; singer, vocal teacher, cantor) and her daughter Frieda (1933-2020) arranged themselves. He made a name for himself accompanied by his wife as a concert singer and later as a cantor. Privately and at the Shanghai Conservatory, they gave vocal lessons together. In 1949 they emigrated to Israel, but soon returned to Vienna. There, Josef Fruchter became choral singer of the cult community and the Vienna State Opera. Music historically remarkable is that the Fruchters regularly sent letters to their family and friends in Vienna between 1941 and 1949. Unlike concert programs and critics, they reflect social history aspects of music life in the extreme situation of Shanghai, they integrate emotional sensitivities, private views and everyday moments – directed to addressees in Vienna, who lived in fear of persecution, deportation and war. Correspondence from Shanghai, where exile specific communication can be shown, is rare. The present edition makes the letters of the Fruchters accessible for the first time. Edited by the music historian Sophie Fetthauer with critical view, including aspects of censorship and self-censorship, as well as arranged biographically and contemporary historically, they represent an important everyday and social history document on music life in exile.