Andreja Preger

Andreja Preger (20 March 1912 – 18 December 2015) was an

Preger, a reservist in the Royal Yugoslav Army, was called to active duty following the invasion of Yugoslavia by Nazi Germany in April 1941.^[1] The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrendered to the Germans on 18 April 1941. The Independent State of Croatia, a German puppet state encompassing Preger's home city of Zagreb, was established by the Germans and the fascist Ustaše, was established on 10 April 1941. Preger, who was both Jewish and a member of the Yugoslav army, went into hiding in Zagreb.^[1] He later fled to Split, which was under Italian occupation.^[1] Preger's father and uncle were both captured and killed in the Ustaše's Jasenovac concentration camp.^[1]

Preger had been a member of the National Liberation Theatre in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina before the war. In 1943, he joined the Yugoslav Partisans at their headquarters in Jajce, central Bosnia.^[1] He fought against the Nazis for the rest of World War II and survived the Holocaust.

He moved to

Preger performed throughout as a pianist throughout Europe, the former Soviet Union and the United States as a member of the Belgrade Trio, which he had established.^[1] He taught also taught piano at several music schools. By 2014, Preger, then 103, was the oldest member of the Serbia's Baruch Brothers Choir, one of the world's oldest Jewish choirs.^[1]

Andreja Preger died in Belgrade, Serbia, on 18 December 2015, at the age of 104.^[1]

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