Leon Reinach

Léon Reinach (May 24, 1893- May 12, 1944) was a French composer and art collector who was murdered in the Holocaust.

Early life
Born in 1893 into the illustrious Reinach family, Léon Reinach descended from an illustrious family of statesmen and scientists: his uncle Joseph had been Gambetta's cabinet director, a member of parliament and a staunch Dreyfus supporter; his uncle Salomon, a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, a historian of art and religion and a prolific author, was a Hellenist, as was his father Théodore, a member of the Institut who built the Villa Kérylos in Beaulieu, a synthesis of his erudition and his imagination.

He married Béatrice de Camondo in March 1919. Their daughter Fanny was born in 1920, and they lived with her father-in-law in the hotel at 63, rue de Monceau. When their son Bertrand was born in 1923, they moved to Boulevard Maurice Barrès in Neuilly.

Reinach was a musician, composer, and art collector. Included in his collection was Vincent Van Gogh's The Bridge at Chatou. His mother in law, Irène Cahen d’Anvers was the subject of a famous portrait Portrait of Irène Cahen d'Anvers by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Nazi occupation of France
When Nazi Germany occupied France in 1940, the Reinachs were persecuted because of their Jewish heritage. During the Second World War, the couple separated. At the end of 1942, having crossed into the free zone, he moved to Pau. He was arrested while trying to escape to Spain. Interned at Drancy with Béatrice and her children, he was deported with Fanny and Bertrand on November 20, 1943 to Auschwitz on convoy 62, and was killed.