Herbert Zipper

Herbert Zipper (April 24, 1904 in Vienna, Austria – April 21, 1997 in Santa Monica, California) was an internationally renowned composer, conductor, and arts activist. As an inmate at Dachau concentration camp in the late 1930s, he arranged to have crude musical instruments constructed out of stolen material, and formed a small secret orchestra which performed on Sunday afternoons for the other inmates. Together with a friend, he composed the "Dachau Lied" ("Dachau Song"), which was learned by the other prisoners. Released in 1939, he accepted an invitation to conduct the Manila Symphony Orchestra. Jailed for four months by the Japanese during their occupation of the Philippines, after his release, he worked secretly for the Allies, transmitting shipping information by radio. After the war, he emigrated to the United States in 1946, where he conducted the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra and promoted music education.

He was born to a prosperous engineer and inventor in Vienna, Austria. He grew up in an affluent Jewish family in the cultural center of Europe, rubbing shoulders with many of the leading writers and artists of the time, and "studied at the Vienna Music Academy with Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss." He worked as a composer and conductor.

On May 27, 1938, shortly after the Anschluss, Herbert and two of his brothers were arrested at their home and sent to Dachau concentration camp. Zipper arrived at Dachau on May 31. He would spend a year in this camp, but instead of sinking into despair, he used the experience to develop his character and his love for humanity, often volunteering for the most demeaning of jobs. Zipper used music and poetry to bolster the spirits of the other inmates. He eventually had instruments made from stolen wood and wire and gathered a group of 14 musician prisoners to form an orchestra, for which he composed music. The orchestra held secret rehearsals and gave concerts on Sunday afternoons in an unused latrine. Zipper said that the concerts were not for entertainment, but a means of keeping alive some small measure of civilization and of restoring value to their lives.

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