Martin Roman (23 April 1910 – 12 May 1996) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

jazz pianist. At the time of the

Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (german: Reichstagsbrand, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor ...

in February 1933, Martin was stopped by SS men at the entrance to the huge Vaterland emporium in Berlin, where his band, the

Marek Weber Marek Weber (24 October 1888 – 9 February 1964) was a German violinist and bandleader. Early life and education Born in Lviv (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Weber moved in 1906 to Berlin and studied at the Stern Conservatory. C ...

Band, was employed. He left for the Netherlands. In January 1944 Roman was transported to

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination camp ...

. In summer 1944 he was forced to participate in a propaganda film in Theresienstadt which the commandant

Karl Rahm Karl Rahm (2 April 1907 – 30 April 1947) was a Sturmbannführer (major) in the German ''Schutzstaffel'' who, from February 1944 to May 1945, served as the commandant of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Rahm was the third and final command ...

had coerced the actor Kurt Gerron to direct. Roman appeared leading his Ghetto Swingers. When the filming was over Roman and Gerron were sent to Auschwitz, where Gerron perished.F. C. DeCoste, Bernard Schwartz ''The Holocaust's ghost: writings on art, politics, law, and education'', 2000 pg. 79.
"Hiding out in Amsterdam in a rented room in 1943, Berlin swing pianist Martin Roman was rudely awakened by a knock on the door one morning." Like jazz drummer and guitarist

Coco Schumann Heinz Jakob "Coco" Schumann (14 May 1924 – 28 January 2018) was a German jazz musician and Holocaust survivor. He became a member of the Ghetto Swingers while transported to Theresienstadt at the age of nineteen. In the aftermath of the Holocaust ...

, Roman survived. Gerron and clarinetist Fritz Weiss of the Jazz-Quintet-Weiss did not. Roman's ''"Wir reiten auf hölzernen Pferden"'' was recorded on the album '' Terezín - Theresienstadt'', by Anne Sofie von Otter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roman, Martin Musicians from Berlin German jazz pianists Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the Netherlands 1910 births 1996 deaths 20th-century German pianists Ghetto Swingers members