Magnus Davidsohn was chief cantor of the Fasanenstrasse synagogue

Fasanenstrasse synagogue

The Fasanenstraße Synagogue was a liberal Jewish synagogue in Berlin, Germany opened on 26 August 1912. It was located in an affluent neighbourhood of Charlottenburg on Fasanenstraße off Kurfürstendamm at numbers 79–80, close to the Berlin Stadtbahn and Zoo Station.-Construction:The synagogue was...

 from its opening in 1912 until its closing by the Nazis in 1936. A trained opera singer, he played the part of King Heinrich in Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...

's 1899 production of Lohengrin. After leaving Berlin in 1939, he helped found Belsize Square Synagogue in London. He died in Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, in 1958.

Davidsohn and his wife were close friends with the parents of Ernst vom Rath

Ernst vom Rath

Ernst Eduard vom Rath was a German diplomat, remembered for his assassination in Paris in 1938 by a Jewish youth, Herschel Grynszpan. The assassination triggered Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass"....

, whose assassination in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 precipitated Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...

. Directly after vom Rath's murder, Davidsohn and his wife visited the parents of vom Rath, who assured him that they did not blame the Jews of Germany (Anthony Grenville: 'Listening to Refugee Voices: The Association of Jewish Refugees

Association of Jewish Refugees

The Association of Jewish Refugees is the specialist nationwide social and welfare services agency representing and supporting Jewish victims of Nazi oppression, and their dependants and descendants, living in Great Britain.-Historical overview:...

 Information and Research on the Refugees from Hitler in Britain', in Refugees from the Third Reich in Britain, Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, volume 4).

Magnus Davidsohn's daughter, Ilse Stanley

Ilse Stanley

Ilse Stanley , , was a German Jewish woman who, with the collusion of a handful of people ranging from Nazi members of the Gestapo to other Jewish civilians, secured the release of 412 Jewish prisoners from concentration camps between 1936 and 1938.During that time she also helped countless others...

, saved hundreds of Jews from concentration camps, and was the author of the book The Unforgotten (Beacon Press, 1957), a memoir of Weimar Germany and the Nazi years. She was also featured on an episode of the American television program This is Your Life

This Is Your Life

This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience including friends and family.Edwards...

, where she was reunited with her father.