Bela Herskovits family papers, 1923-2010

fonds

1923-2010

Textual Records, Ephemera, Clippings, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

944792

0.76 metres of textual material (3 boxes) - manuscript, typescript, printed
590 photographic prints - chiefly gelatin silver - 28 x 25 cm or smaller
334 photographic prints (2 albums) - chiefly gelatin silver - 25 x 20 cm or smaller
38 audiocassettes
85 text files (8.02 MB) - digital

Bela Herskovits was born in Hungary in 1910. He began playing the violin as a boy and had his first public engagement as a musician at 15 years. After a period of military service in the 1930s he formed a band, with members including Grete, his future wife, who played piano and accordion. He and Grete left Europe in 1936, leaving their child with his parents, and the band worked in orchestras in Teheran, Baghdad, Cyprus and British Palestine before being evacuated with other refugees to Tanganyika in 1942. They later moved to Mwanza, East Africa where Bela worked in a British recruiting camp while playing with the band at night. In 1945 Bela’s band were contracted to play in Nairobi at The 400 club and later the Flamingo and the Grill Room. It was while they were in Nairobi that they heard of the death of his mother of illness, and the deaths of his father and their son in Auschwitz concentration camp. After being granted British citizenship Bela and Grete visited Europe in 1952 and 1956 and lived in London for 9 months before leaving Kenya for Australia. In Sydney they formed a band, playing in a restaurant in Kings Cross and at Oatlands House, Dundas while Bela taught violin privately. Grete died in 2002, and Bela in 2009

SERIES 1
Bela Herskovits papers, 1927-2009

SERIES 2
Bela Herskovits correspondence, 1939-1985

SERIES 3
Series 3: Bela and Grete Herskovits printed material, [ca. 1950]-2010

SERIES 4
Bela and Grete Herskovits photographs and albums, 1923-[ca. 2008]

SERIES 5
Bela Herskovits oral history recordings

SERIES 6
Transcripts of Bela Herskovits interviews, approximately 2003-2009
Presented by Annie S Miley Clarke, October 2023

Copyright restrictions may apply: This collection has multiple rights owners
Copyright status:: Photographs created before 1955 are out of copyright. Photographs created after 1955 are in copyright for the life of creator plus 70 years
Research & study copies allowed:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and courtesy copyright holder