Abram Pinkenson

Abram Vladimirovich Pinkenson
Abram Pinkenson.
Born	(1930-12-05)December 5, 1930 Bălți, Bessarabia, Romania
Died	November 1942 (aged 11) Ust-Labinsk, Krasnodar Krai, USSR
Nationality	Soviet

Abram Vladimirovich "Musya" Pinkenson (December 5, 1930, Bălți, Bessarabia, Romania (today Moldova) - November 1942, Ust-Labinsk, Krasnodar Krai, USSR (today Russia)) was a Soviet pioneer and schoolboy who was shot by the German occupying forces in 1942.

Abram was the son of a doctor, Vladimir Borisovich Pinkenson, and his wife, Feni Moiseevna. His family had a long background in medicine, and one of his ancestors was the first physician of the Bălți district hospital at its' inception in 1882.

At a young age, Abram learned to play the violin, and when he was five years old, a local newspaper described him as a violin prodigy. In 1941, Vladimir Pinkenson was assigned to a military hospital in Ust-Labinsk in the USSR. In the summer of 1942, after the start of Operation Barbarossa, the town of Ust-Labinsk was overrun by invading German troops, and there was no time to evacuate the hospital. Soon afterwards, Pinkenson and his family – who were Jewish – were arrested. In November 1942, they were taken to the banks of the river Kuban to be executed. While waiting to be lined up for execution, Abram began to play The Internationale on his violin. He was promptly shot to death by a German soldier.

After the end of World War II, Abram Pinkenson became widely known through articles in the Soviet press and radio. In particular, an article describing his deeds and heroic death was published in the newspaper Pravda in 1945. It was picked up not only in many parts of the Soviet Union, but also in Europe and America. At the place of the execution of the young violinist, an obelisk was erected. It was replaced by a concrete monument in the late 1970s.