Shmuel Baruch Taube

1914 Selow bei Lodz - 2008 Rehovoth
Shmuel Baruch Taube, né Samuel Bernhard Taube April 10, 1915 in Selow near Lodz, cantor, composer, teacher, attended the seder in Lodz. After his family moved to Lackenbach in 1926, where his father Israel Taube (1884 Warta, Poland-1970 Antwerp) was appointed cantor and Jewish slaughterer, he visited the Jeshiwe in Lackenbach and Mattersburg, and later on became a member of the choir and took lessons in synagogal music with cantor Emanuel Fraenkl of the Polish Shul in Vienna's 2nd district, Leopoldgasse. In 1935 he was appointed as cantor of the Prayer House Montefiore, Taborstrasse 38, 1020 Vienna.Two years later Shmuel Taube exiled to France, where he became cantor in Paris 16, rue de Montevideo. 1939 he registered with the French Foreign Legion, but as a singer he was disengaged. After the German occupation of France in 1942 he fled to the 'italian zone' in Nice, where he obtained a position as cantor and performed in a cantor's concert in Cannes, but had to flee again, this time to Moutier, where his relatives had found refuge. In October 1943 he was arrested and on November 23 deported from Drancy to concentration camp Auschwitz, sonn to be transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau.In 1944 he was sent to the concentration camp Fürstengrube for forced labour and in 1945 on a 'death march' to Leibnitz, the concentration camp Dora and finally to Lübeck, from where with a transport of the International Red Cross he was able to reach Sweden. After lthe end of WW II he became cantor in Göteborg, followed by cantor positions in Paris in 1947, 1949 in London, 1958 in Washington D.C. as well as in Montreal. He obtained worldwide fame as a lyrical tenor, was invited to concerts all over the world and made several recordings. To his opinion, his music and his voice had saved his life. Cantor Taube passed away on September 18, 2008 in Rehovoth, Israel. Update Primavera Driessen Gruber 8. September 2015