Josef Hassid

Josef Hassid (Polish: Józef Chasyd) (28 December 1923 - 7 November 1950) was a Polish violinist.

Born 28 December 1923 to Jewish parents in Suwałki, Poland, as Joseph or Józef Chasyd, he was the second youngest of four children. He lost his mother when he was ten and was brought up by his father, Owseij, who took charge of his career. After lessons with a local violin teacher he studied from 1934 at the Chopin School of Music in Warsaw under Mieczyslaw Michalowicz (1876-1965) and Irena Dubiska (1899-1989). In 1935 he entered the first Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Warsaw, but suffered a memory lapse; he received an honorary diploma.

His father arranged for him to play for fellow Pole Bronisław Huberman (1882-1947), who was much impressed and he arranged for Hassid to study under the Hungarian virtuoso Carl Flesch (1873-1944) at his summer course in 1937 at Spa, Belgium, where fellow students included Ivry Gitlis (b. 1922) and Ginette Neveu (1919-1949). He developed a tremendous passion for a young lady there, three years his senior, but the liaison was broken up by her family (possibly because they were not Jewish), which had a disturbing effect on him.