Leo Fuld

Possessing an instantaneously recognizable voice, Fuld recorded throughout Europe and the Americas in many languages, including Yiddish, English, German, French, Hebrew and Dutch.

[citation needed] He was heard by the famous Jack Hylton, who signed the 19-year-old Fuld to a three-year contract with his celebrated band, which resulted in engagements in every important theatre in the British Isles and the Continent.

At the French Casino his biggest song was Rosinkes Mit Mandeln, and the great Al Jolson came back every night at "five to ten" just to catch his performance.

Together with the late Hendrik Willem van Loon, Fuld started the shortwave broadcasts to the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies.

Rumors reached the UK of what was happening to the Jewish population of the Netherlands and that almost the complete Fuld family had been murdered by the Nazis.

Upon his arrival, in gratitude for his wartime broadcasts, thousands of people greeted him and he was offered a contract to sing at the largest theatre in Amsterdam.

Offers followed from all over the world, and while at the Sa Majeste in Paris with his revue, he visited a little Yiddish night club where he heard a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto sing a song which touched him deeply - "Vi ahin zol Ikh geyn?".

Since 1949, Leo Fuld made five world tours and appeared in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, North Africa, Egypt, Israel and Lebanon.

He shared the stage for 10 weeks with Edith Piaf at the Paris ABC Theatre and was engaged by the Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia to sing at the wedding of his daughter at the Imperial Palace in Addis Ababa.