Nadeslala Basia Jaworski

95 years ago, composer Dick Kattenburg (1919-1944) was born in Amsterdam. The eldest son of Louis and Heleen Kattenburg received his first violin lessons from Hugo Godron, who also coaches young Dick in his first attempts at composition. Kattenburg had planned to study violin at the Ecole Normale in Paris with Mademoiselle Capelle in the autumn of 1939, as is reported in a newspaper article of July that year. However, dark clouds were gathering. By that time, Kattenburg was already using an alias signing his compositions. The same article describes how Ytia Walburg Schmidt accompanied the young violinist in a private concert. In 1942, Kattenburg goes into hiding at the house of this same Ytia. However, they are betrayed and he travels between many different addresses. A year before the war ends, he is arrested and transported to Auschwitz. It is assumed he died on 30th september somewhere in Mid-Europe. His last composition is an unfinished, but hauntingly beautiful sonata for viola and piano: