He began his career in his native Prague and travelled to London in March 1939 when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia.

[citation needed] Susskind was giving a piano recital in Amsterdam in March 1939 when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, and his mother advised him not to return home.

[2] In 1942 Susskind joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company as a conductor, working with singers such as Heddle Nash and Joan Hammond,[1][2] and married (1943-1953) the British cellist Eleanor Catherine Warren.

While with the TSO he taught conducting at The Royal Conservatory of Music where among his pupils were Milton Barnes and Rudy Toth.

[citation needed] As he was leaving his post at the TSO, he was featured in a CFTO television special, "Inside the Toronto Symphony", produced and directed by Peter Macfarlane.

He was also closely involved with the Mississippi River Festival, an annually recurring outdoors crossover concert series organised by the local university.