The Jewish violinist Charles Snoeck, who is spelled Carl or Karl Snoeck in different documents, played an important role for many years as a concertmaster, soloist and conductor of the Kissingen Spa Orchestra. He was often responsible for the arrangement of the spa music proper, whereas the well-known and famous chief and guest conductors reserved the great symphony concerts for themselves. 

Charles Snoeck was born in Amsterdam on September 30, 1885 as the son of the actor and singer Henri (Georg) Snoeck and his wife Anna (Hartog), née Rosenberg. Charles Snoeck was born as a natural talent in music. In November 1902, the young musician moved to Munich where he became a member of the Kaim Orchestra (orchestra founded in Munich in 1893 by Franz Kaim) when he was just 22. When the old Kaim Orchestra reformed itself to become “Münchner Philharmoniker” (Munich Philharmonic), Snoeck returned there. At the end of 1912, he married Christin (Mizzi) Krieger, who had been born in Bayreuth in 1875. The couple didn’t have any children. In 1915 or the end of World War I respectively, Charles Snoeck was promoted concert master of the Munich Philharmonic. Soon he became one of the formative musicians of the orchestra. He repeatedly also played as a soloist in the concerts.

When the Munich Philharmonic returned to Bad Kissingen in 1919 – they had already played there in the summer seasons as “Münchner Kaim-Orchester” after the turn of the century – Charles Snoeck made his entrance as a celebrated soloist. In the following years, he was responsible for the spa music as a concert master, soloist and conductor. Between 1919 and 1933, he lived there at different addresses, came to the spa regularly at the beginning of May and checked out for Munich at the end of the spa season in September. Only from 1926 to 1930 he didn’t go to Bad Kissingen. The season of 1933 was to be the last one for the Jewish musician at Munich Philharmonic and, therefore, also his last “guest performance” in Bad Kissingen.

His extraordinary reputation and great skill couldn’t protect Snoeck from his premature dismissal from the spa orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. Because of alleged “health reasons”, on May 1, 1934 he was dismissed into early retirement by the Munich Philharmonic and consequently also Kissingen Spa Orchestra for being Jewish. With one of his showpieces, Brahms’ Violin Concerto, on March 16, 1934, he played for the last time as a soloist for the Munich audience who celebrated him enthusiastically. The reviewer of “Münchner Neueste Nachrichten” wasn’t deterred by the circumstances of the dismissal that had entirely been prompted by the racial ideology of the Nazi regime and expressly appreciated Snoeck not only for his achievement on that evening but on principle for his great commitment in the last decades: “In the 18^th People’s Symphony Concert, the first concert master of many years of the Munich Philharmonic Karl Snoeck said goodbye to the Munich audience. There is no doubt that the resignation of this artist who did so much for the reputation of our “Konzertverein” (music society) means a real loss. His interpretation of Brahms’ Violin Concerto was played according to the intentions of its creator and Karl Snoeck may have felt the intensity of the sympathy displayed in the tempestuous applause and the many wreath donations.”

Snoeck survived the Nazi Era thanks to his marriage to his non-Jewish wife who he had married in 1912. Because of this “privileged mixed marriage” he was protected against imminent deportation as long as his wife was alive. Even if he could save his life, he was severely affected by the hard forced labor he had to do as an unskilled worker from 1941 to 1943 in an unknown chemical-pharmaceutical factory and since April 1943 till the end of the war in “Luitpold-Werk”. He also suffered from the depressing atmosphere in camps and Jews’ houses. At first, he was sent to “Judensiedlung Milbertshofen” (Jews’ settlement of Milbertshofen) as Milbertshofen camp was called by the Nazis. Since March 1941, the camp mainly served as a transit camp for the deportations to Theresienstadt, Auschwitz/ Oświęcim Extermination Camp and Kaunas. Snoeck didn’t only work extremely hard day by day, he also had to witness how numerous people were deported to the extermination camps. Oppression, persecution, misery and death were always with him. On August 19, 1942 the camp was closed. Most of its inmates had been deported at that time. The last Jews in the camp whom Charles Snoeck belonged to were transferred to the collective camp in Berg am Laim which had been established in the seized part of the monastery of “Barmherzige Schwestern”. Snoeck lived there from August 1942 to March 1943. After this camp had also been dissolved, he had to move to his sister-in-law in Belgradstrasse in Munich.

After the war, Charles Snoeck tried to start his life as a musician anew. He twice had performances with the Munich Philharmonic. But hard forced labor and the hard life in the camps had impaired his health too much. Due to a severe heart disease, he couldn’t perform publicly any longer. In March 1946, he had a strong heart attack and died from its consequences on March 27, 1946.

Maria Snoeck outlived her husband by merely six years. She had been loyal to him in spite of all anti-Semitic hostilities and had vehemently rejected all requests of the Gestapo to divorce her Jewish husband. She died on September 22, 1952.