Significant events and dates connected to the life of Gideon Klein

1919

6 December Gideon Klein is born in Přerov, Moravia, to Jindřich and Ilona Klein.

1921

24 December Maternal grandfather, Herman Marmorstein, dies. He is buried in Přerov's Jewish cemetery.

1925

September Starts school

At age six begins piano lessons with local teacher Karel Mařik.

1927

9 May Paternal grandmother, Louise Klein, dies. She is buried in Přerov's Jewish cemetery.

1928

Autumn Sister, Lisa, leaves Přerov to commence her piano studies with Jan Heřman at the Prague Conservatoire.

1929

Eldest sister, Edith, leaves Přerov to go to live on Kibbutz Sarid in British-controlled Palestine.

November Completes his first extant composition, Suite lyrique for piano.

1930 Begins his monthly visits to Prague to study piano with Růžena Kurzová.

1931

September Moves permanently to Prague and lives with Lisa. He enrols at the Jirásek Grammar School. He continues his lessons with Růžena Kurzová, enrolling as a part-time student at the Conservatoire.

1932

4 February First public appearance as a pianist in Prague, at a conservatoire concert performing the Sonatina in D minor for Violin and Piano by Zdeněk Fibich.

17 December Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish coming-of-age

1933

30 January Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.

7 December Klein performs the Mozart Sonata in A major, k331, at a Conservatoire concert.

1934

16 May Performs a set of Mendelssohn's Songs without Words at a Conservatoire concert.

26 August Grandfather Emanuel Klein dies and is buried in Přerov's Jewish Cemetery.

Accompanies for E. F. Burian's D-34 Theatre.

1934

15 September The German Reichstag ratifies the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws.

1935 Mother, Ilona, moves to Prague and lives with Gideon and Lisa. Ilona's mother, Kateřina, follows. The four family members move to their final address, Rašínovo nábřeží 66.

Edith returns to Czechoslovakia.

1936

2 March Klein performs Bach and Handel at the Municipal Spa House in Teplice.

24 November Auditions as an accompanist for the National Theatre opera company

December Hears Prokofiev perform in Prague and obtains his autograph.

1937

20 May Performs Smetana and Chopin at the Municipal House in Přerov for the Academic Club jubilee evening of words and music.

Summer Convalesces on the Yugoslavian coast; precise date, location and nature of his illness unknown.

Edith marries Jaroslav Dolak.

Accompanies the review ‘Fighting Spain’ for the Liberated Theatre.