Clara de Vries

Clara Johanna Suzanna de Vries (31 December 1915 – 22 October 1942) was a Dutch jazz trumpeter and bandleader. She was murdered by Nazis at Auschwitz Birkenau during World War II.

Family De Vries was born on 31 December 1915 in Schoonhoven, South Holland, Kingdom of the Netherlands, into a Jewish family. Her parents were Arend de Vries (1882–1942) and Betje de Vries (, 1878–1942). Her father was a textile dealer and amateur trumpeter, who gave her trumpet lessons.

Two of her four siblings were the trumpeter Louis de Vries (1905–1935) and trombonist Jack de Vries (1906–1976) [ nl], who both played in jazz orchestras. After a visit to the Netherlands, American jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong remarked: "that Louis de Vries, he had a sister Clara with a ladies-band. Oh boy, she could play that horn."

Career De Vries was one of the first professional female Dutch trumpet players. In 1929, de Vries won a major national soloist competition in Zandvoort.

After touring with Selinsky, she joined the Schirmann Jazz Girls, led by Alexander Schirmann, which debuted in Rotterdam on 1 May 1933 Members of the orchestra included her friend Annie van't Zelfde, Elly Marel and Tilly Busch. A clip of de Vries and Cambré performing on Omroepvereniging VARA radio station in 1938 survives.

After the outbreak of World War II, it became difficult for de Vries to play, as a Jewish musician, but she performed with the Plus Fours in Groningen. Members of the Dutch Nazi movement and political party Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland (NSB) heard that Jewish jazz musicians were performing and raided the venue to beat up the customers, assisted by German soldiers, with 23 people wounded.

Death De Vries did not want to go into hiding and played in the Amstel Cabaret in Amsterdam's Jewish quarter in August 1942. She was murdered in Auschwitz on 22 October 1942, aged 26.

In 2013, de Vries was one of the women featured in the compilation of 1001 biographies about Dutch women, 1001 Vrouwen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis.

A street in Rotterdam is named after de Vries.