In the Second World War, many composers were silenced because of their Jewish descent or their resistance. Their music was forbidden. The Leo Smit Stichting carries out research, tells composers' stories, makes sheet music available and performs forgotten music. Together with musicians, programmers, researchers and listeners we give back composers their rightful place in music history.

Forbidden music comes to life

Leo Smit Foundation

'Why didn't we know about this music?' Music that was forbidden during the Second World War was forgotten after 1945. For the past 25 years, the Leo Smit Stichting has given this music back to the audience in hundreds of concerts. Found in attics, in archives, garden sheds and garbage bins.

The suitcase with Dick Kattenburg’s compositions comes to life in the film ‘Kattenburg’s Blues’. While in hiding, he received written instrumentation lessons from Leo Smit. Discover the best music you've never heard on this website.

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Festival Forbidden Music Regained 2024

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Make forbidden music come to life

the mission of the Leo Smit stichting

Let forbidden music sound again

In the Second World War, many composers were silenced because of their Jewish descent or their resistance. Their music was forbidden. The Leo Smit Stichting carries out research, tells composers' stories, makes sheet music available and performs forgotten music. Together with musicians, programmers, researchers and listeners we give composers their rightful place in music history.

Help us and donate

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Video Gallery

We should be very proud of Leo Smit

Brothers Arthur and Lucas Jussen perform Leo Smit’s Divertimento all over the world. Arthur & Lucas: ‘When we first discovered this music, we asked ourselves ‘Why did it take us so long to find this piece? Why is this not known by everyone?’ We should be very proud of Leo Smit and we will continue to play his music whenever we can. We hope you enjoy this Divertimento as much as we do.”

A life in a suitcase

January 1940. Dick Kattenburg - barely 21 years old - is a promising violinist and talented composer. Hitler’s army has occupied Austria, Czechia and Poland. Dick is worried. He is Jewish.

Actor Harpert Michielsen, flutist Eleonore Pameijer and pianist Tobias Borsboom tell the story, directed by Tonje Langeveld.

Film registration: Andras Hamelberg - Franjo Studio

A new generation of ambassadors

During the last year of his Masters studies at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam, pianist Dimitri Malignan researched lives and music of Jewish composers killed in the Holocaust. His work resulted in a project ‘Missing Voices’, a series of concerts and a short documentary film.

Eleonore Pameijer: ‘With all my heart I recommend this film.’

“Flautist Eleonore Pameijer has done a sterling job both in assembling such a fascinating collection of recordings, and in bringing to light a number of works from the first half of the 20th century that deserve far wider dissemination.”

— Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine

forbidden music regained

Discover 2,000 compositions by suppressed composers

Download sheet music, listen to recordings

Paul Hermann posed for Zadkine

Dick Kattenburg wrote a string trio at 17

Rosy Wertheim enjoyed an international career

Forbidden Music Regained

A treasure trove filled with forbidden music

On our website Forbidden Music Regained you will find more than 2,000 works by composers who were banned during the Second World War. Many of them were Jewish, others refused to comply with the rules of the Nazi's. Their music was banned from the concert halls. The Leo Smit Stichting is determined to give this music back to the audience. Find sheet music, listen to recordings, search the database for instrumentations, genres and composers. Perform this music. Work with us to help suppressed composers reclaim the stage.

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Stories

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A new generation of ambassadors

During the last year of his Masters studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, pianist Dimitri Malignan researched lives and music of Jewish composers killed in the Holocaust. His work resulted in

Scores in a fruit crate

Eleonore Pameijer talks about how she discovered the scores of Hans Lachman: “One of the most projecting finds of recent years was stashed away in a garden shed. Hans Lachman’s son Michel kept his father’s scores

New photos Leo Smit

In February 2020 some new photos were found of Leo Smit that had never before been published. The photos were part of a family album belonging to a friend of Leo’s sister Nora. The pictures were taken in the summer of 1923, when Leo Smit was still a student at the Amsterdam Conservatoire.

The whistling faun

With his music, Hans Krieg shed some light in the darkness of camp Westerbork. With his guitar he taught the children songs and with his recorder he would sometimes pop up in unexpected places. A letter to him, written by a prisoner in January 1944 contains a fitting description: ‘the whistling faun’.

The cut off autograph

Why do Leo Smit’s autograph and the name of our foundation matter so much to us?

Composer for sale

When he came across this painting on an aucioneer’s website, musicologist Thiemo Wind immediately recognized the person portrayed. Why was this painting by an important Dutch composer for sale? Could this be true?

A lost muse

According to a note on the manuscript, Leo Smit’s orchestral work Silhouetten was inspired by drawings by Paul Süss. Who was he?

Hungarian friends fled to the Netherlands

Géza Frid and Paul Hermann both studied at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, where Zoltán Kodály and Bela Bartók were their teachers. In the 1920s they fled the antisemitism in Hungary. They both married a Dutch girl. Géza Frid survived the war as a stateless Jew in Amsterdam, Paul Hermann was arrested during a raid in Toulouse and never returned. Together with the Leo Smit Stichting, their children Arthur Frid and Corrie Hermann keep their fathers’ music alive.

Eyewitness account

Ignace Lilien wrote an eyewitness account in one of his manuscripts. With help of the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund, the Leo Smit Stichting scanned over 30,000 pages of manuscript to make unpublished music more easily accessible.

A love letter

Years ago, Eleonore Pameijer, founder of the Leo Smit Foundation, received a package in the post. It was her birthday that day and curiously she opened the envelope. It contained a music manuscript with a note from Ima Spanjaard-van Esso. "I heard about the Leo Smit Foundation on the radio and I thought you should have this."