Remembering Walter Arlen: A Musical Prodigy and Holocaust Survivor

Walter Arlen: A Life Remembered

Walter Arlen, a remarkable Viennese musical prodigy who escaped to the United States after the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, passed away on September 3, 2023, in Santa Monica, California. He was 103 years old. His death, which occurred in a hospital, went largely unnoticed at the time. Howard Myers, Mr. Arlen’s husband and his sole survivor, recently confirmed the news to The New York Times.

Arlen and Myers, who had been companions for 65 years, were married in 2008 following California’s Supreme Court ruling that upheld the legality of same-sex marriages. Their enduring relationship was a testament to their shared love and resilience, even in the face of adversity.

Even after eight decades, Mr. Arlen’s memories remained strikingly vivid. He often recalled the harrowing events of his youth: his father being violently dragged off to a concentration camp, the deep anguish that led to his mother’s nervous breakdown and subsequent suicide, the family’s home and business being confiscated by the Nazi regime, and the horrific sight of an older Jewish man murdered by an SS guard. These traumatic experiences shaped his life and work.

Born into a prosperous Jewish family that had owned a well-known department store in Vienna since 1890, Mr. Arlen, originally named Aptowitzer, was an 18-year-old high school student with a promising future in music. However, his life took a drastic turn when German troops invaded Austria, integrating it into Hitler’s Third Reich in an event known as the Anschluss.

As the tides of Nazi violence swept through Austria, Jewish life was systematically dismantled. The family’s department store was seized and “Aryanized,” leaving them without their livelihood. They were evicted from their apartment on the top floor, and Walter’s father was subjected to a series of concentration camps, ultimately ending up in the infamous Buchenwald. Walter, his mother, and his younger sister, Edith, were forced to seek refuge in a pensione, a significant change from their previous life of comfort.

In a poignant reunion, Mr. Arlen and his sister, Edith Arlen-Wachtel, visited Vienna in March 2008, marking their first return to their native city since fleeing the horrors of Nazi-occupied Austria.