Henri Emile "Hans" Mossel was a Dutch clarinetist and saxophonist.
1905–1935: Early years
Hans Mossel was born into a very musical Jewish family. He was the son of a well-known Dutch cellistIsaäc Mossel and pianist Jeannette Belinfante. He spent his youth with his parents in Laren in the Netherlands, where he lived on the Velthuijsenlaan. At a young age he was taught to play the piano. His father stimulated his love for jazz. In 1923 Mossel played as a drummer and pianist in the “Larensche Jazz Band”. A couple of years later he formed his own jazz band “The Indian Jazz Band”. In 1931 Mossel was employed by the German violinist and bandleader Marek Weber and moved to Germany. Because he was Jewish, Weber was targeted by the Nazis who wanted to suppress the so called degenerate music, a label which had also been applied to jazz music. This was meant to isolate, discredit and ultimately ban this form of music. Towards the end of 1932 Marek left Germany and travelled via London to the United States. Mossel returned to the Netherlands.
Hans Mossel was considered to be among the most notable clarinetists and saxophonists performing in Europe. In 1935 Mossel was employed by the Dutch broadcasting company the AVRO as a bandleader for the AVRO Dance Orchestra. In 1939 Mossel married Ada Elizabeth van Ollefen. They had two children. Shortly after the beginning of World War II life became very difficult for Hans Mossel. Although married to a non-Jewish woman, he was forced by the Nazis to fill bomb craters at Schiphol airport, which was used as a German military airfield called Fliegerhorst 561 and as a result regularly attacked by the Allied Forces. On 13 December 1943, 199 American planes dropped about 1600 bombs on Fliegerhorst 561, after which it could no longer be used by the Germans. On the basis of a trumped-up case of sabotage Hans Mossel was deported in 1943 to the Monowitz concentration camp, which was part of the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland. Here Mossel was murdered on 4 August 1944. There is a short biography of Mossel written by Herman Openneer, one of the founders of the Dutch Jazz Archive.
