Henry Eisenman collection

Copyright Holder: Mr. Mark Eisenman Henry (Chaim) Eisenman (1919-2005) was born July 29, 1919 in Wierzbnik, Poland, to Menachem (Mendel) Eisenman (Aizenman, Ajzenman, circa 1893-1944) and Ethel Binsztok (Bięsztok) Eisenman (circa 1897-1944). His family moved to Łódź when he was two years old, and he had a younger sister and two younger brothers: Deborah, Joseph, and Abraham. Henry’s father was a musician who played with the Łódź symphony orchestra, and Henry began studying music and performing professionally. Following the German occupation of Łódź, he was required to perform forced labor such as digging ditches and cleaning up sewers. His family was forced to give up their apartment and live in the Łódź ghetto from about 1940-1944, where his mother worked in a straw factory and his brother worked in a shoe factory. When the ghetto was liquidated in August 1944, he and his family were deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The women were separated from the men upon arrival, and he never saw his mother or sister again. He later learned that his mother was murdered shortly after arrival at Auschwitz and his sister died at Bergen-Belsen shortly after liberation. His brother Abraham died at Auschwitz after and SS man hit him in the head. Two weeks after arriving at Auschwitz, Henry and his brother Joseph were transferred to the Lärche subcamp of Gross Rosen (some sources list Kaltwasser), where they worked breaking stones and dynamiting trees. In January 1945, they were transferred to the Flossenbürg work camp. They were sent on a death march to Dachau in April and were liberated en route by the American Army. He and some friends were given instruments after the war, formed a swing and jazz band called “The Happy Boys,” and began playing music for DP camps all around Germany and Austria and for the American, British, French, and Russian armies. Band members included Sam Spaismacher, Abraham Mutzman, Chaim (Henry) Baigelman, Elek Silberstein, Itchak Lewin, Abraham Lewin, and Josel Lewin, many of whom had previously been musicians in the Łódź ghetto. Henry Eisenman immigrated to Canada in July 1948 and married Anna Schaffel (1927-2005). The Henry Eisenman collection includes sheet music related to the work of composer and musician Henry Eisenman. The collection includes the score and parts for "Hebrew Rhapsody" (alternative title, "Jewish Rhapsody") by Eisenman, which was part of the repertoire of Henry Baigelman's jazz band, "The Happy Boys," while touring displaced persons camps after the Holocaust. The collection also includes sheet music and arrangements for "Balet [sic] Suite No. 1," “Bess You is My Woman” from Porgy and Bess, “The Canary’s Escape,” “Flameco [sic],” “Funeral March,” “I Apologize,” “Lolita (Spanish Serenade)” by A. Buzzi-Peccia, “Lollipop Quartet,” “Lover Come Back to Me,” "Mother U.S.A.," “Two Shadows in the Moonlight,” “Waltz Theme,” and several unidentified pieces.