TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Remembering Dr. Herbert Zipper World War II Survivor

Monday, January 17, 2022

Remembering Dr. Herbert Zipper World War II Survivor

In around 1992 I met an elderly gentleman Dr. Herbert Zipper, who had been a Jewish composer-conductor in Germany in the 1930s when Hitler was chancellor. Zipper was picked up and sent to Dachau where he organized an orchestra that gave clandestine concerts from an abandoned latrine. He was released from Buchenwald and he went to Manila to marry the love of his life Trudl Dubsky. Zipper became the conductor of the Manila Symphony Orchestra.

When the Japanese invaded Manila, he was interrogated and held prisoner for five months. Upon his release, he worked for the underground. A few weeks after Manila's Liberation he held the famous orchestra on the ruins of Manila.
I met him in the 1990s because he was looking for a publisher for his wife's World War Two watercolor caricatures. A big publisher had accepted the work for publication in 1964-65 but backed out for what seemed to be political reasons. Crossroads School went on to publish Trudl Dubsky Zipper's book.
I've been watching World War Two documentaries and just realized what a privilege that was to meet Dr. Zipper.
Further, I felt proud that the Philippines had provided refuge to some 1,200 Jews just prior to the brunt of World War Two, the Zippers among them.

Read more
World War Two Heroes in Cebu Philippines

Capt. Federico Arias Reyes
https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2022/03/world-war-two-hero-cebu-federico-reyes.html

Alfonso Escaño Corominas, Sr.
https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2022/02/world-war-two-hero-alfonso-escano.html
Dr. Colonel Emilio Veloso Osmeña
https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2022/02/world-war-two-in-cebu-dr-col-emilio.html
Conrado Colina Tudtud
https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2022/02/world-war-two-in-cebu-conrado-colina.html
James M. Cushing
https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2022/02/world-war-two-in-cebu-james-m-cushing.html
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard Official Website:
https://ceciliabrainard.com
tags: #Philippines #pacificwar #WWII #Worldwartwo #Philippinewar #Cebuwar

tags: #WorldWarTwo #WWII #Manilasymphonyorchestra #Manilaners , Jews in Philippines

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.