Читать книгу Jazz Survivor: The Story of Louis Bannet, Horn Player of Auschwitz - Ken Shuldman - Страница 7

If you booked a room today on the second floor of the sprawling Hilton Hotel in Rotterdam, you’d be standing very close to the spot where Louis Bannet was born on 15 August 1911 at number 26

Kattendrecht. Today, this part of the city is a thriving business center. But in the early 1900s, it was a poor Jewish working-class neighborhood, the ‘Lower East Side’ of Rotterdam’, known as the Helmersstraat.

Louis Bannet, born Levi Bannet, was the youngest son of Leon and Leenjte Bannet. At one time there were eight Bannet children, but a sister and two brothers died before Louis was born. When Louis came into the world most of his older siblings had already left home, so it was just Louis and his older brother Isaac who remained with their parents in the small two-room apartment.

Leon Bannet, Louis’s father, was a mostly out-of-work fix-it man and an alcoholic, who at times could be abusive to his wife and children. Louis’s mother Leentje (pronounced Leen-cha) like many women in poor families, was the sturdy rock of the household. She earned some money as a seamstress, but also relied on the generosity of her brother, Abraham van Beuren, who managed a blanket warehouse in Rotterdam.

Louis Bannet’s first encounter with music took place when he was six years old. A neighbor in the building had a young son who practiced his violin at all hours of the day. Leentje would always find Louis sitting on the floor outside the apartment, ear pressed against the door. Unfortunately, although the boy practiced constantly, his lack of musical ability was painfully evident to everyone in the building.

One morning the boy ‘s father opened his door and found Louis sitting in his usual spot. He told Louis to wait, and walked back into his apartment. A moment later he returned, violin in hand. Without saying a word, he handed Louis the worn violin and tattered bow, smiled, and retreated behind the door. I assume the neighbors were quite happy, but not as happy as young Louis Bannet.

Call it a gift from God, call it a blessing, whatever it was, Louis possessed it, and by the time he was seven he had taught himself to play the violin.

Leentje Bannet loved to hear her son play. She knew he had a special talent, and longed for him to get professional training. Her husband had other thoughts. He believed music was a waste of time, and that money was better spent on other things, which for him meant alcohol. But every week, Leentje put away small amounts of money for Louis’ musical education in a glass jar she kept hidden in a kitchen closet.

One warm spring day Louis was practicing a Beethoven piece in his room. The window, which faced the busy street, was wide open. Leon Bloorman, a German Jew, was walking past on his way to work. The sound he heard stopped him in his tracks. He looked up to see where the music was coming from, but couldn’t see anything. He walked into the building and climbed the stairs, following the sound until he reached the Bannet apartment. He knocked on the door and was greeted by Leentje. He introduced himself and told her that he was a violin teacher at the Jewish Conservatory of Music. Leentje invited the young man inside to meet Louis. Bloorman, who was nearly forty years old, bent down and shook Louis’ hand. He was astonished at the sight of his violin: he couldn’t believe that such a beautiful tone could come from an instrument in such a terrible condition. He asked Louis to play for him, and again Louis played the Beethoven piece. When he had finished, Bloorman asked Leentje to bring Louis to the Conservatory the very next day to audition for the headmaster.

That night Louis practiced into the early morning hours. While he played, his mother sat in the kitchen worrying about how she would pay for her son’s tuition should he be accepted.

The next morning, Louis and his mother made the short journey to the Conservatory. Leon Bloorman, holding a violin case, was waiting at the door. He escorted them down the hall to the headmaster ‘s office. Once inside, he opened the violin case and asked Louis to take the violin in his hand. Louis lifted the instrument to his shoulder and began to pluck at the strings. He quickly placed it back in the case and reached for his own violin, still wrapped in the cloth case his mother had made. He told Bloorman that he would prefer to use his own instrument. The headmaster entered the room and Bloorman introduced him to Louis and his mother. The headmaster asked a few questions, then asked Louis to play. Louis, without any sheet music, began to play an excerpt from Beethoven’s violin concerto. The headmaster listened intently as Leentje and Bloorman gazed quietly at Louis. Moments later, the headmaster told Louis to stop playing, then asked him to wait outside with his mother while he conferred with Bloorman. After several minutes, the door opened and Louis and Leentje were told to come back in. The headmaster said he was very impressed with Louis’ playing and thought that he could certainly benefit from some form of musical education, but he was concerned how such a young boy would cope in the competitive environment of the Conservatory. He said that he would admit Louis under one condition: if Mr Bloorman would personally take him under his musical tutelage, he would be allowed to attend the Conservatory. Bloorman readily agreed.

After the audition at the Conservatory, Louis had one more audition to attend. With his mother he went to the home of his uncle, Abraham von Beuren, to ask for help with tuition. Once again, Louis played the Beethoven piece. Uncle Abraham was very impressed with Louis’ progress, having heard him play only at holiday parties. He agreed to help pay for Louis’ tuition, and Louis promised his mother to use his musical talent to pay his uncle back.

At the Conservatory, Louis soon became one of the star pupils, and his ability as a leader of musicians also became apparent. Most of the students were also from poor families, so the need for additional income was always important. In his second year Louis formed a small orchestra with several students, and they hired themselves out for weddings and bar mitzvahs. Many, including Louis, weren’t even of bar mitzvah age yet. They would also perform on street corners, with Louis passing a hat for contributions.

Whatever money Louis earned - and in those days it was considerable - went straight into the jar his mother kept hidden in the kitchen. This extra money helped keep the lights on for weeks on end. Of course, Bloorman was not particularly thrilled that some of his best students were playing music in the streets, but as long as they kept up with their practicing he never interfered.

Louis practiced constantly. Leon Greenman, a fellow survivor and a boyhood friend from the Helmerstraat, remembers waiting outside the Bannet apartment with many of the children from the neighborhood, shouting for Louis to come down to play marbles. But Louis wouldn’t come out until he had finished practicing.

The queen’s official birthday, Koninginnedag, was a national holiday in the Netherlands, celebrated by street parties and other events. On this special day the queen would attend various festivities and visit one or two specially chosen locations. On Koninginnedag 1923, one of those locations was the Jewish Conservatory of Music. It was announced that Louis Bannet, a third-year violin student, would perform a Beethoven selection for Her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina.