David Cantor was born on September 28, 1896, in Grzymałów (present-day Hrymailiv), which at the time belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire. The tenor was a member of the choir of the Stadttheater for the 1926/27 season, performing under the name Donis Kant.
David Cantor was married to the singer Martha Leue, who was born on October 12, 1910, in Görlitz to the musician August Leue and his wife Mathilde, born Meyer. She joined the Hamburg Stadttheater choir as a soprano in 1929 and remained an ensemble member until 1937.
In summer of 1934, David Cantor was dismissed because of his Jewish background, along with the last remaining Jewish members of the choir. According to the minutes of the Stadttheater Supervisory Board from August 20, 1934, the chairman asked whether there were still “non-Aryan members among the choir staff.” The theater directorate’s answer to this question was unequivocal: “General Director Strohm said there are none.”
David Cantor was arrested by the Gestapo and detained for a period, though the exact time is unknown. After his release, he and his wife decided to flee: David and Martha Cantor traveled from Hamburg to New York via Southampton, arriving aboard the transatlantic SS Washington on June 24, 1938. The couple lived in the small city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1942, where David Cantor worked at a synagogue. In 1944, the musician became an American citizen and lived with his wife in the New York borough of Brooklyn. In 1963, they moved to Florida and settled in Hollywood, a city north of Miami. David Cantor died there on November 29, 1965. His widow, Martha Cantor, died on November 19, 2002, in nearby Boca Raton.
1896 Hrymailiv (Grzymałów)
1965 Hollywood, Florida