Heinz Perez

Location 
Hünensteig 14
District
Steglitz
Stone was laid
02 March 2015
Born
19 July 1920 in Berlin
Occupation
Klavierstimmer
Escape
nach Palästina
Survived
Heinz Perez was the son of Rafael Perez and Johanna Perez (née Bender). After his “Aryan” mother refused to divorce his Jewish father, Heinz was forced to leave school at the Paulsen Gymnasium in Steglitz and attended the Jewish Addas-Israel School.

In 1938, Rafael and Johanna Perez decided to seek out a safer living situation for their only son. After training as a carpenter in Berlin-Niederschönhausen, the then 18-year-old travelled by ship in October 1938 to Palestine. His parents succeeded in emigrating to England in 1939.

Like his father, Heinz was musically very gifted. As a boy, he dreamt of becoming a famous singer, and he would probably have done so had the National Socialists not come to power. Years later in Israel, he could realize his dream as an amateur singer in various musical productions to some extent. Alice Tichauer, a woman born in Breslau (now Wrocław in western Poland), claimed he had such a beautiful singing voice that she fell in love with him when she first heard him sing in 1947. In her own words, „His voice went straight to your heart.“ After some time, he was able to give up his carpentry work. He had learned the piano tuning trade from his father back in Berlin and worked happily as a piano tuner for 40 years until old age. He died in 2010 at the age of 90.