Madam, - While no one could dispute the artistic contribution of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, your obituary of her (August 5th) was oddly sanitised. The only reference to her political engagements was the statement that "the singer reportedly had connections with the Nazis, revealed in a controversial biography that appeared in 1996. The revelations, denied by her, caused a considerable stir".
Ms Schwarzkopf did indeed deny her Nazi party membership three times to Allied Tribunals after the war and once to the New York Times. However, when confronted with documentary evidence of the acceptance, in March 1940, of her application for membership number 7,548,960 she admitted this fact in a letter to the London Times in 1983.
Ms Schwarzkopf, a favorite of Goebbels, sang at Nazi Party functions and for the Waffen SS at the front. "It was akin to joining a union, and exactly for the same reason: to have a job," she said. - Yours, etc,
GARRET A FITZGERALD, Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA.