Shperling (Chuzhoy) Benyamin Savelyevich (23.01.1914, Pskov ― ?) ― variety performer, pianist, accordionist, percussionist.
In 1920 he moved with his family to Riga, and studied at a Jewish elementary school. Due to the family's financial difficulties he began working in 1926, and in the 1930s played in restaurant and café orchestras (including, in 1936―39, playing with O. Strok in the bar of the “Alhambra” restaurant).
In 1941 he was confined to the ghetto, and was subsequently held in concentration camps in Riga and its environs. In 1944 he was deported to Germany, and in 1944―45 was a prisoner in the Stutthof, Danzig, Burggraben, and Gottendorf concentration camps.
He was liberated by Soviet forces on 10 March 1945.
In December 1945 he returned to Riga. From 1946 he worked as an orchestra performer at the Riga Operetta Theater, and played in variety orchestras at cinemas.

Lit.: SKV. P. 59.

M. Mikhailets