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Three Holocaust-Era Jewish Refugees Built Iceland's Classical Music Scene From Scratch

From Jerusalem Post · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Three Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, a pianist, a conductor, and a cellist, built Iceland's classical music scene from scratch in the late 1930s.
  • Despite Iceland being an isolated island with no established music institutions and a government hostile to Jewish immigration, these musicians established the foundations for the country's current classical music landscape.
  • Their story, largely untold for nearly a century, is now the subject of a newly translated book by Icelandic musicologist Árni Heimir Ingólfsson.

In the autumn of 1935, Iceland was a small fishing port with a population under 30,000, lacking a concert hall, a proper orchestra, or a significant conservatory. Onto this isolated island arrived a 22-year-old pianist from Berlin named Robert Abraham, seeking refuge from Nazi Germany.

For a classically trained European musician fleeing the Nazis, an island near the Arctic Circle with no symphony orchestra and a government hostile to Jewish immigration was about as far from a dream destination as it got.

— Jerusalem PostDescribing the challenging circumstances faced by the refugee musicians upon arriving in Iceland.

He was not the only one. Three years later, conductor Victor Urbancic and his Jewish wife, Melitta, arrived after failing to find safety elsewhere in Europe. Heinz Edelstein, a cellist and teacher from Freiburg, also settled in Iceland with his family sometime in between. None of them had initially chosen Iceland as a safe haven; it was far from a dream destination for European musicians fleeing persecution.

Yet, Urbancic, Abraham, and Edelstein went on to build the very institutions that define Icelandic classical music today. Their journey is the focus of "Music at World’s End: Three Refugee Musicians from Nazi Germany and Their Contribution to Iceland’s Music Life," a book by Icelandic musicologist Árni Heimir Ingólfsson, recently translated into English.

Yet Urbancic, Abraham, and Edelstein went on to build the institutions that still define Icelandic classical music today.

— Jerusalem PostHighlighting the lasting impact of the three musicians on Iceland's music scene.

The book details their individual paths: Urbancic, born in Vienna in 1903, trained at the Vienna Conservatory but his career ended under the Nazis because his wife was Jewish. Abraham, born in Berlin in 1912, fled Germany in 1934 after studying at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Edelstein, a cellist and teacher, also arrived with his wife and two sons. Their contributions, long overlooked, are now being reconstructed, offering a poignant reminder of Iceland's Holocaust history.

Its more recent history of Jewish exile has gone largely untold for nearly a century until now, as scholars have worked both to recover the music that Nazi persecution scattered across the globe and reconstruct an Icelandic musical history that offers a painful reminder of the country’s Holocaust history.

— Jerusalem PostExplaining the historical significance and recent efforts to uncover the story of Jewish exiles in Iceland.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Jerusalem Post in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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