Joseph Schmidt

Joseph Schmidt was born in Bukovina (then Austria-Hungary, later Romania, now Ukraine—geography was fluid, but his roots weren't) and possessed one of the sweetest, most astonishing lyric tenor voices of the 20th century. He was also just 4-foot-11. In the world of grand opera, where leading men were expected to tower over the soprano rather than disappear into her crinoline, his height barred him from most stage roles. Did Schmidt despair? Briefly, perhaps, but then radio and sound film arrived, giving the diminutive singer a medium where microphones didn't care if you needed a footstool to reach them.

Dubbed the "Pocket Caruso," Schmidt became an international sensation throughout the 1930s. He starred in German musical films—most famously *A Song Goes Round the World*—and packed concert halls across Europe and the United States, including a legendary appearance at Carnegie Hall. He never abandoned his roots either: throughout his stardom, he continued to serve as a cantor, lending his clarion high notes to synagogues in Vienna and Berlin and recording liturgical music that still makes cantorial mavens weep into their kugel.

Being arguably the most beloved German-language tenor of the era didn't help once the Nazis took power. Banned from German airwaves and screens, Schmidt fled to Vienna, then Belgium, then France. In 1942, after attempting an escape into Switzerland, he was detained and interned in the Girenbad refugee camp. Weakened by his ordeal, he suffered a heart attack and died at just 38, untreated because camp authorities suspected he was faking his chest pains. A tragic, infuriating end to a colossal talent who proved that soul and lung capacity are completely indifferent to inseam measurements.