Leonhard Heinrich begins appearing in advertisements around 1929, where he is credited with musical arrangements for Haus Vaterland in Berlin. During this period he may also have worked with Sidney Bechet.

He worked on the short film Fidele Razzia and on Land of the Red Earth. Together with Egon Larsen, he wrote a show entitled Pfändungsoper.

After 1933 Heinrich joined the Jüdischer Kulturbund and took part in a number of its activities. In the autumn of 1935 he worked at the Kleinkunstbühne Café Leon in Berlin under the artistic direction of Max Ehrlich. For the first light-entertainment programme, opening on October 29th 1935, Heinrich and Hermann Ludwig were named as the two pianists. Heinrich was again named in the second programme, performed on November 5th, 6th, 18th and 19th 1935.

In 1936 he left Berlin for Prague, where he worked with Dr. Harry Osten and others.

Heinrich was included in two Nazi publications that presented him as a “musician to avoid.”

In 1941 he was deported from Prague to Lodz on the so-called “VIP Transport.” He was subsequently deported from Lodz to Chelmno, where he perished in the gas vans in May 1942.

Source: Adriel Resh.