In 1934, Anna Burstein and Halina Schulsinger were forced to join the “Kulturbund Deutscher Juden”, later renamed Jüdischer Kulturbund. The opportunities available to Jewish artists began to disappear in 1933 with the employment ban, and their exclusion from public life continued to intensify. Schulsinger and Burstein played two piano concerts at the Kulturbund Leipzig in 1934 and 1936. The only theater where concerts by Jewish pianists were permitted was the “Battenberg” at 32/34 Tauchaer Straße (today: Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße). Until 1938, Halina Schulsinger performed in Salzburg, among other places, and played Mozart at the famous Mozarteum.
That same year, she fell victim to the so-called “Polenaktion” (“Poland Action”). During this first systematic and violent deportation of Polish Jews, which took place around October 28, 1938, she, too, was deported to Poland. Later she was deported to the Warsaw ghetto. In March 1942, activists in the Polish underground managed to smuggle Schulsinger’s daughter Jola out of the ghetto. She was hidden, until her mother also escaped from the ghetto in December 1942 and came to pick her up. Unlike her husband, Halina Schulsinger survived the Shoah. She emigrated to the USA and settled down in Newark. There, she joined the music faculty at Rutgers University. Burstein and Schulsinger continued to perform together as professors.
Today, a project on the Jüdischer Kulturbund commemorates and honors Halina Schulsinger. “Two Pianos: Playing for Life” follows these talented women and brings their story to life through their music: https://www.judischekulturbund.com/two pianos-playing-for-life/.
