Tadek Korn papers

The Tadek Korn papers include photographs, clippings, and a biographical statement by violinist Perec Brand that were formerly housed in an album and scrapbook. Photographs from the album primarily depict Tadek Korn, his family, and other displaced persons at the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp between 1945 and 1948. Additional photographs from the album depict the Korn family in America and on vacation in Eilat, Israel and Corinth, Greece. Photographs from the scrapbook include one depicting Tadek Korn wearing the clothing he had on upon arrival at the Zeilsheim DP camp, one depicting him playing the violin, and one depicting a painting (“Portrait of Old Rabbi”) along with a certificate acknowledging that the painting was not subject to an export ban. Clippings describe Korn’s family history during the Holocaust and his talent at playing the violin. Perec Brand’s biographical statement describes his early life, musical education, the murder of his wife and children in the Holocaust, his survival in Stutthof and Buchenwald, teaching Tadek Korn to play the violin at Zeilsheim, and his desire to immigrate to Canada. Tadek (Tad) Korn (1941-2010) was born in Gladilo, a small town near Archangelsk, Russia, on April 26, 1941 to Hersh (Hersz, Harry) and Sara (Sonja) Korn. Hersh and Sara had fled Minsk Mazowiecki, outside of Warsaw, following the German invasion of 1939. They first moved to the Russian-occupied side of Poland but were then banished to Archangelsk and Siberia. The Russians later sent the family to a camp in Uzbekistan, where they lived in harsh conditions until the war ended. They returned to Poland after the war and learned that their families had been murdered in the Holocaust. Continued antisemitism convinced them to flee further west. HIAS settled them at the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp, and fellow survivor Perec (Percy) Brand taught Tadek to play the violin. Tadek’s younger sister Anna was born in 1946, but she died shortly after her first birthday. The family wanted to immigrate to Palestine but were told that only men were being accepted, so in 1948 they boarded the USS General Sturgis at Bremerhaven for Halifax and settled in Montreal. Tad was recognized as a child prodigy and studied violin with Ethel Stark, the founder of the first women’s orchestra, and played with the Montreal Symphony. He attended Outremont High School and McGill University. He became an American citizen in 1983 and died in California in 2010.