Herbert Zipper

[1][3] Jailed for four months by the Japanese during their occupation of the Philippines, after his release, he worked secretly for the Allies, transmitting shipping information by radio.

[1] He grew up in an affluent Jewish family in the cultural center of Europe, rubbing shoulders with many of the leading writers and artists of the time, and "studied at the Vienna Music Academy with Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss.

He would spend a year in this camp, but instead of sinking into despair, he used the experience to develop his character and his love for humanity, often volunteering for the most demeaning of jobs.

He eventually had instruments made from stolen wood and wire and gathered a group of 14 musician prisoners to form an orchestra,[1][2] for which he composed music.

[6] Zipper was working on the typhoid fever detail when Soyfer fell ill and eventually succumbed to the disease at the age of 26.

[3] The inmates on the detail had not been given proper protection nor even clean water to wash themselves and many contracted typhoid fever as a result.

After four months of imprisonment and interrogations, he was released, and he and Trudl spent the next few years helping friends and trying to stay alive, having lost what few belongings they had accumulated.

Zipper made many friends while in Manila, including General MacArthur’s wife, who helped him organize a victory concert after the Allies liberated the island.

[7] As an internee at Dachau, Herbert Zipper had vowed that he would one day commemorate the downfall of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime with a performance of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony "Eroica."

With the arrival of American forces on Luzon Island, Zipper set out to reconstitute his disbanded orchestra, though some members had not survived, including concertmaster Ernesto Vallejo.

War correspondent William J. Dunn, who reviewed the concert, recorded that on May 10, 1945, Herbert Zipper fulfilled the vow he had conceived at Dachau seven years prior.

In 1947, Zipper was offered a teaching post at The New School for Social Research in New York, founded in 1918 by Alvin Johnson as one of the country’s first adult education centers.

He also worked on reviving the disbanded Brooklyn Symphony, a group which had not been active since their conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham, had returned to England.