Because of persecution resulting from anti-Semitism and the fact that he was a citizen of Soviet Russia, Louis Laber, chief producer of the Finnish State Opera, committed suicide here yesterday. When he was engaged as manager of the State Opera his nationality was unknown since he had been living in Czecho-Slovakia for the last ten years and he was thought to be a Czech.
It was only when he applied for a renewal of his permit to stay in Finland that it was disclosed that he was a Russian subject and a Jew. Since then anti-Semitic artists have subjected him to various forms of persecution which caused him great unpleasantness. The refusal of the Finnish authorities to prolong his permit ripened his decision to commit suicide.
For the past two decades Laber has lived abroad and it was only last year that he took out a Soviet passport because he desired to visit his parents in Russia.
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