A Black History Moment: Valaida Snow, Trumpeter, Singer, Dancer and Concentration Camp Survivor

Valaida Snow (1903- 1956)
Trumpeter, singer, dancer

While there was no systematic program for elimination of people of African descent in Nazi Germany as there was for Jews, the fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation, persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation,  incarceration, brutality and murder.

On a return trip to  Europe after headlining at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Valaida Snow was captured in Nazi- occupied  Copenhagen and interned in a concentration camp.

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Valaida Snow came from a family of musicians. Taught by her mother to play cello, bass, violin, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, saxophone and trumpet, Snow was famous for playing the trumpet.  Named “Little Louis” after Louis Armstrong who called her the world’s second best jazz trumpet player besides himself, Snow  played concerts throughout  the U.S., Europe and China.

While touring through Denmark as the conductor of an all women’s band, Snow was arrested for possession of drugs and sent to  Axis internment camp for  alien nationals in Wester-Faengle.  It is rumored that Snow was sent to a concentration camp no only because she was black but also because of her friendships with German women musicians -- implying lesbianism.

Separation of whites and blacks was mandated by the Reichstag (German Parliament), which enacted laws against mixed marriages throughout Germany’s African colonies. The children of black soldiers and German women were called ‘Rhineland bastards” because they were viewed as a threat to the purity of the “Aryan” race.

After eighteen months of imprisonment, Snow was released as an exchange prisoner and allowed to return to New York.  Tragically, however, Snow  was both psychologically as well as physically scarred from the ordeal and  never fully recovered. She attempted to return to performing but her spark was clearly gone.

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