Semenoff Sasha (real name Abram Shapiro) (1924, Riga) — violinist, music teacher, ghetto prisoner.

Sasha Semenoff grew up in Riga, where he studied at the I. Rauchvarger Gymnasium and a music school.

With the beginning of the Nazi occupation, his family was forced to move into a basement, while the Latvian collaborator Herberts Cukurs occupied their apartment. Cukurs forced him to play the piano during night-time gatherings, and during the day to clean garages and wash cars and buses returning from mass execution actions.

From autumn 1941 to March 1945, he was imprisoned in the Riga Ghetto and later in the Stutthof concentration camp.

After liberation, he remained in Germany, and in 1949 graduated from the Handel Conservatory in Munich. In the same year, following an invitation from his uncle in Los Angeles, he emigrated to the United States, adopted the name Sasha Semenoff, and settled in New York.

He began his American career as a violinist in the orchestra of the Waldorf Astoria New York.

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Sasha Semenoff performed with various orchestras on major American stages. In 1959, he founded his own violin ensemble, “Romantic Strings.” Later, he moved to Las Vegas, where his orchestra gained wide popularity, performing in leading concert halls and hotels.

He collaborated with major performers, including Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Elvis Presley. He also performed at the White House for U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

He recorded several albums, participated in television and film productions, and composed his own music and songs, some of which were dedicated to his experiences during the Holocaust.