The violinist and composer Hugo Löwenthal was born in Carlsbad (present-day Karlovy Vary). He received his training as a cellist and conductor in Prague before moving to Teplitz (present-day Teplice), probably in 1901. There, he served as concertmaster of the local spa orchestra; was a permanent member of the Teplitz-Schönau String Quartet; and in 1925 was appointed to the Neue Stadttheater, where he remained concertmaster until 1933. In 1912, he became a member of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. In 1938, by then retired, he and his wife, Regina Löwenthal, moved to Prague to live with their daughter.
From there, the Jewish musician and his wife were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on February 8, 1942. Even under the horrific conditions of the camp, Löwenthal continued to compose music. Among his works from this period were songs for the Shavuot holidays, written for violin and harmonica. On June 13, 1942, he and his wife were deported on Transport AA1 to the Lublin district, most likely to the Majdanek concentration camp. None of the 1,000 prisoners on that transport survived. The exact place and date of death of Hugo and Regina Löwenthal remain unknown.
1875 Carlsbad
1942 Majdanek (Concentration and Extermination Camp)