Walter V. and Lily Dumont Mindus family papers

Dr. Walter V. Mindus (1908-1985) and Lily Dumont Mindus (1911-2006) were prominent members of the New Bedford, Massachusetts community.

Lily Dumont Mindus was born in Berlin, Germany on July 12, 1911 to Jakob and Rosa Dymont (Dymont is the German spelling of the last name). Lily Dumont was a child prodigy in music whose talent was fostered by her father, a conductor and composer of liturgical music for a synagogue in Germany. Lily Dumont began playing the piano at a very early age and made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1926 when she was only 15 years old. She studied under her father, and Theodore Bertram. She fled to the United States when Nazi pressures made it difficult for her to play in German concert halls, essentially forcing her to leave Germany in 1937. Her fiancé, Dr. Walter Mindus, joined her in the United States and they were married in 1938. The couple had two children, Lester and Paul. Lily Dumont continued to perform and tour in the United States, Europe and Latin America, eventually returning for a performance in Germany in 1957. She recorded for His Master's Voice, Polydor and Concert Society labels. For more than 40 years Lily Dumont was a piano instructor at the Longy School in Cambridge, MA. She also taught students out of her home in New Bedford and summer sessions for the SMU Music Department (now University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth). She performed recitals on New Bedford’s WNBH and Boston’s WCRB radio. She was the founder and long-time president of the New Bedford Concert Series. Lily Dumont Mindus died on March 6, 2006. Walter Valk Mindus was born January 7, 1908 in Berlin, Germany to Paul Israel and Johanna Mindus. He was educated at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and at age 27 was chief surgical resident at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin before immigrating to the United States. Dr. Mindus’ parents, Johanna and Paul Mindus, remained in Germany and died at Auschwitz. In 1944 Mindus joined the U.S. Army and served as both a physican and translator in the European theater of operations during World War II. During his tenure in the U.S. Army, Dr. Mindus attended the Medical Field Service School at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania and was a part of the 240th General Hospital in France and later the 20th Corps Medical group, attached to General Patton's Third Army. After the defeat of Germany, Mindus assisted with the interrogation of SS officers. In the United States, Dr. Mindus was a surgeon on the staff of Saint Luke’s Hospital and maintained a private practice in New Bedford. Walter Mindus died in August 1985.