Henri Emile "Hans" Mossel (

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, 24 December 1905 –

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, German-occupied Poland, 4 August 1944) was a Dutch

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

ist and saxophonist.

1905–1935: Early years

Hans Mossel was born into a very musical Jewish family. He was the son of a well-known Dutch

cellist The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 ...

Isaäc Mossel (

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, 1870 –

, 1923) and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Jeannette Belinfante (1868-1925). He spent his youth with his parents in Laren in the Netherlands, where he lived on the Velthuijsenlaan. At a young age he was taught to play the piano. His father stimulated his love for

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

. In 1923 Mossel played as a

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

and pianist in the “Larensche Jazz Band”. A couple of years later he formed his own jazz band “The Indian Jazz Band”. In 1931 Mossel was employed by the German violinist and bandleader

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 ...

and moved to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Because he was Jewish, Weber was targeted by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

who wanted to suppress the so called degenerate music (German: Entartete Musik), a label which had also been applied to jazz music. This was meant to isolate, discredit and ultimately ban this form of music. Towards the end of 1932 Marek left Germany and travelled via

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Mossel returned to the Netherlands.

The last ten years from 1935 until 1944

Hans Mossel was considered to be among the most notable clarinetists and saxophonists performing in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. In 1935 Mossel was employed by the Dutch broadcasting company the

AVRO AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broad ...

as a bandleader for the AVRO Dance Orchestra. In 1939 Mossel married Ada Elizabeth van Ollefen. They had two children. Shortly after the beginning of World War II life became very difficult for Hans Mossel. Although married to a non-Jewish woman, he was forced by the Nazis to fill bomb craters at Schiphol airport, which was used as a German military airfield called Fliegerhorst 561 and as a result regularly attacked by the Allied Forces. On 13 December 1943, 199 American planes dropped about 1600 bombs (about 400.000 kilos) on Fliegerhorst 561, after which it could no longer be used by the Germans. On the basis of a trumped-up case of sabotage Hans Mossel was sent on 9 March 1944 to the Westerbork transit camp. On 23 March 1944 Mossel was deported to the

Monowitz concentration camp Monowitz (also known as Monowitz-Buna, Buna and Auschwitz III) was a Nazi concentration camp and labor camp (''Arbeitslager'') run by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland from 1942–1945, during World War II and t ...

, also called Auschwitz III, which was part of the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

in Nazi German-occupied

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Monowitz was set up at the request of the chemical factory

IG Farben Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (), commonly known as IG Farben (German for 'IG Dyestuffs'), was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies—BASF, ...

to provide slave labour. The German manufacturer

Krupp The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...

also used slave labour provided by Monowitz. Hans Mossel was forced to work for IG Farben. The life expectancy for these slave labourers at IG Farben was three to four months. As a result of exhaustion and

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

Mossel died on 4 August 1944. There is a short biography of Mossel written by Herman Openneer (1935-2017), one of the founders of the Dutch Jazz Archive.The most knowledgeable man on Dutch jazz (NRC, 5 August 2017).
/ref>

References

Sources

Herman Openneer (1935-2017), 1993.

Jewish Biographical Dictionary.
* Peter Dempsey, ''Marek Weber: His Violin and His Orchestra'', 2011.

External links

Hans Mossel, see Mosselmonument.nl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mossel, Hans Dutch clarinetists 1905 births 1944 deaths Dutch Jews who died in the Holocaust Musicians from Amsterdam Dutch jazz saxophonists 20th-century Dutch musicians Jewish Dutch musicians Dutch people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp 20th-century saxophonists