HELPING A CZECH MUSICOLOGIST TO ESCAPE NAZIS MANN, THOMAS. Typed Letter Signed, "To Whom it May Concern," in English, a letter of recommendation for music historian Paul Nettl. 1 page, 4to, personal stationery; folds. Princeton, 3 January 1940 "When visiting Prague in the last years, each time I was strongly impressed by the intensity and high standards of Czech musical culture. . . . I am sure Dr. Paul Nettl, a scholar and musician of outstanding qualities, will greatly strengthen the bonds of a deep and genuine sympathy already existing between this country's music lovers and the people which produced Dvorak, Smetana and Janacek. Dr. Nettl's great knowledge of music history as well as his experience in broadcasting technique will enrich our musical life as it did in the old country."
Paul Nettl (1889-1972) was a Jewish, Bohemia-born musicologist who taught at Prague from 1919 until 1939, when he settled in the U.S. to escape the Holocaust. Teaching in Chicago, and later at Indiana University, he wrote works on Jewish minstrels and musicians, the history of dance music, and other European musical topics. His son, Bruno, became an ethnomusicologist.