Berlin Radio Interview with Beatrice Waghalter in 1989 (in German)

In April 1989, Beatrice Waghalter (1913-2001), the daughter of Ignatz Waghalter, traveled to Berlin to attend the Deutsche Oper’s performance of her father’s 1917 opera, Jugend. On the afternoon of April 22, just several hours before the performance, she was interviewed by the well-known music critic and historian, Dietrich Steinbeck (1937-2011). The program was broadcast by Sender Freies Berlin. Beatrice herself had been a singer, and was active in the Jüdische Kulturbund between 1934 and 1937, before fleeing Germany. The interview, in which Beatrice spoke of Waghalter’s musical career and his great love for Berlin, was conducted in German. This interview captures something of Beatrice’s remarkable personality. One point should be made. Beatrice, as was common among women of her generation, deducted four years from her age, and told the interviewer that she was born in  1917. Actually, she was born in 1913. It was not until December 1993, at a celebration  of her birthday, that she confessed to her friends that she was turning 80.

Sender Freies Berlin Interview with Beatrice Waghalter, April 22, 1989