Kurt Sonnenfeld (composer)

Kurt Sonnenfeld (Vienna, 24 February 1921 – Milan, 22 March 1997) was an Austrian Jewish musician and composer. During World War II, he was interned in Fascist camps established in Italy under the regime of Benito Mussolini. Life Early life Kurt Sonnenfeld was born in Vienna on 24 February 1921, during the city’s peak of cultural, artistic, and musical prominence. From an early age, his musical talent was recognized by his father, Leopold Sonnenfeld, a prominent Jewish actor-musician active in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. He began formal musical studies at the Vienna Conservatory and later trained under renowned Viennese operetta composer Edmund Eysler (1874–1949), studying piano, harmony, composition, and counterpoint. Persecution and emigration In July 1939, amid rising antisemitic persecution following the Anschluss, Sonnenfeld’s parents sent him to Milan. They hoped to secure his eventual emigration to the United States through the legal mechanism of an affidavit, though these efforts proved unsuccessful. Internment at Ferramonti In February 1941, Kurt Sonnenfeld was arrested in Milan and imprisoned at San Vittore prison. Following Italy’s entry into World War II in