Louis Bannet

Louis Bannet (15 August 1911 – 2002) was a Dutch trumpeter popular during the 1920s and 1930s.

Following the German invasion of the Netherlands, he was arrested after being recognized by an SS officer on 15 December 1942 and taken to Auschwitz concentration camp. He played the trumpet in its orchestra for over two years and was taken to other camps before being liberated on 9 May 1945. He had an extensive musical career after his release, releasing 17 albums and hosting the television show Mon Coeur Est un Violinck (My Heart is a Violin) in Canada.

Early life and musical education Bannet was born Levi Bannet in the Hilton Hotel in Rotterdam at number 26 Katendrecht, on 15 August 1911. He was the youngest of eight children of Leon and Leenjte Bannet, though one of his sisters and two brothers died before he was born, and many of his siblings had left home by this time, leaving only him and his brother Isaac. Leon Bannet was largely unemployed tradesman and an alcoholic who could be abusive to his wife and children, whereas Leentje was a seamstress. The family relied on some money from Leentje's brother Abraham van Beuren who managed a Rotterdam blanket warehouse. Bannet grew up in a two-room apartment in Helmersstraat, the poor Jewish quarter of Rotterdam.

Bannet had his first encounter with music at age 6, hearing the son of a neighbor in the building frequently practicing his violin, and was given a violin by his father. supported by his mother's savings held in a glass jar. As he practiced a Beethoven piece in the apartment, he was noticed by Leon Bloorman, a German violin teacher at the Jewish Conservatory of Music, from the street, and was asked to audition for the Conservatory's headmaster the next day. He succeeded and was admitted to the Conservatory on the condition that Bloorman would personally tutor him. His uncle Abraham van Beuren agreed to pay for his tuition. He formed a small orchestra with his fellow students in his second year, being hired out for weddings and bar mitzvahs and also playing on street corners. His trumpet was exhibited in the Museum of Jewish Heritage by that year, and the trumpet remains there .