LEONORE SCHWARZ NEUMAIER

Leonore Schwarz was born in Vienna in 1889. Her singing career took her to opera houses in Graz, Nürnberg, and Magdeburg, and in 1917 she was named First Contralto of the Opera in Frankfurt on Main, Germany. Following her marriage to Frankfurt businessman Otto Neumaier, in 1921, she left the opera stage, but continued to perform in concert and on radio. In 1942, Leonore Schwarz Neumaier was deported from Frankfurt by the Gestapo and murdered in the Nazi death camp Majdanek, near Lublin, Poland. Earlier, still hoping to be reunited with her husband and their son John (Hans) in the United States, Leonore Neumaier packed several trunks, which her family did not receive until after the war. A VOICE SILENCED features photos and opera memorabilia contained in these trunks, as well as family snapshots taken by John as a youth growing up in Nazi Germany.