Karel Reiner

Karel Reiner (27 June 1910 – 17 October 1979) was a Czech composer and pianist. He was persecuted by Nazis as a Jew and by communists as a formalist. He was the only classical composer to survive the concentration camp in Theresienstadt. Life He was born in Žatec, Bohemia into a Jewish family. His father Josef was a kantor in Žatec’s synagogue. He studied law, and acquired his doctorate in 1934. In 1929 he also studied composition privately with Alois Hába and composed Fantasia for Quarter - tone piano. In 1931 he graduated from the Master School of Composition with Orchestral suite, as a student of Josef Suk. Reiner was also a concert pianist who cooperated with Theatre of Emil František Burian (1934–1938). During World War II; he was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, first in Theresienstadt (deported on 7 July 1943), he participated in musical activities there, created incidental music for the play Esther, directed by Norbert Frýd. Later, on 28 September 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, afterwards to Landsberg and finally to Kaufering, a subcamp of the Dachau camp. Following the death march and liberation he returned to Prague, where he reunited with his wife Ha