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Concert pianist who fled the Nazis dies

Walter Hautzig was saved from the Holocaust by a fellowship to the Jerusalem Conservatory, which led to a long and successful international career.

February 6, 2017 17:06
Pianist Walter Hautzig in his prime
1 min read

A concert pianist who escaped from Nazi-occupied Vienna as a teenager has died aged 95.

Walter Hautzig fled the Austrian capital thanks to a fellowship from the Jerusalem Conservatory, which he auditioned for in 1938.

Born in 1921, Mr Hautzig studied at the Vienna Academy of Music until the German annexation of Austria. When the academy was seized by German soldiers, he continued to play at home but later responded to an advert in a Jewish newspaper for an audition with Emil Hauser, director of the Jerusalem Conservatory and a founder of the Budapest String Quartet.

In a documentary filmed by his granddaughter Molly DeVries in later years, Mr Hautzig said that Mr Hauser was not just offering fellowships, but exit visas too.