Helga Uys

Helga Uys (July 2, 1908 - May 26, 1969) was a German-born South African concert pianist and piano teacher of Jewish descent. She was married to Hannes Uys and they had two children, the concert pianist Tessa Uys, and the award-winning satirist, stage artist, and writer Pieter-Dirk Uys.

Biography Early years Uys was born Helga Maria Bassel in 1908 in Berlin. Her father was a cantor

In 1935, she was expelled from the Reichsmusikkammer, the chief archivist at the Berlin Jewish Museum, established that Uys was under Nazi regulations as " fully-Jewish", and therefore could not be treated differently from other Jews, even though she converted to Christianity in 1933. with Franz's help, where she could continue her music career and reunite with her parents.

Death Uys suffered from bipolar disorder. She committed suicide in 1969, at the age of 60, following a prescription mix-up that made her lose her performer’s control of her fingertips. Only in 2003, after her daughter Tessa went through her mother's documents at the Berlin Jewish Museum, she found out with the help of Aubrey Pomerance, head of the archives. has that her mother was fully Jewish. After negotiations with Pomerance, it was decided Uys' piano was to be returned to Berlin. Uys's Blüthner piano was last played in February 2004 in the family home in Cape Town. The next day, the piano was taken back to Blüthner's works in Leipzig to be restored, before being permanently exhibited in the Berlin Jewish Museum.