Six Musical Portraits Jewish Music of the Holocaust by Stewart Cherlin

Six Musical Portraits Jewish Music of the Holocaust by Stewart Cherlin
Original Presentation at Temple Judea Mizpah Yom Ha-Shoah Observance - May 04, 2005 (Revised March 14, 2011 for JUF PSDP Presentation)

Dedicated to the Memory of
Avraham Czerwin One of the Six Million

Jewish Music of the Holocaust
Abstract of Presentation Jews in music prior to the Nazis A survey of Jewish musicians and composers during the Holocaust The variety of Jewish music from the period Six Portraits focus on six genres of musical expression It was once believed that ‘music’ was tied to one’s religious or ethnic background. Composers like Felix Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler wrote ‘Jewish Music’ merely because of their ancestry. It mattered little that many of the composer’s of the 19th and 20th century converted to Christianity for varies reasons or were baptized at birth. Their music was ‘Jewish’ due to their bloodline, not the music’s content. It didn’t matter that their musical style, genre, and content varied greatly. It didn’t matter if it sounded Germanic, it was Jewish, a marker as plain as the yellow arm bands Jews were forced to wear during the reign of terror. This program is entitled Six Musical Portraits. Portrait was selected in the sense of a motif or genre of music, not individuals. Jewish music of the Holocaust period includes a wide diversity of creative expression. On our journey through horrific times we will explore six portraits in honor of the six million. Most of the composers, singers, and performers we will look at perished during the Holocaust. Their memory and lives are a blessing their music continues to inspire. The music portraits include: Liturgical Music The Legacy of Mahler and Wagner – Composers subsequent to Mahler and Wagner Arnold Schoenberg and Modernism – new forms of expression Entartete (Degenerate) Musik – music banned by the Third Reich Music from the Terezin Concentration Camp Music of Despair, Resistance and Hope including music of the Extermination Camps, Ghettos, and the Partisan Resistance --Excerpt from Felix Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No. 7 d min 1 – Allegro or Felix Mendelssohn’s setting of Psalm 45

Portrait One: Liturgical Music

Chazzan Gershon Sirota The Jewish Caruso The First Portrait is Liturgical music as captured by sound recordings. We start with the great Cantor Gershon Sirota.

Gershon Sirota (1877 – 1943) Gershon Sirota is an example of a Cantor that was became a great performer. This was due to the advent and distribution of sound recordings and great arrangers and promoters. Sirota was both a great Cantor and great performer. His Cantorial posts included major synagogues in Odessa, Vilna and Warsaw He was know as the 'Jewish Caruso.' In fact the great Caruso ( ), would come to hear Sirota sing whenever, they were in the same city. Most likely, Sirota returned the favor. One hears the influence of Italian Aria in his musical settings. His fame spread to America as he toured several times. During his last tour in 1938, he lead HH services in Chicago and spent Succoth in Milwaukee.

Chazzan Gershon Sirota (Cantor) Psalm 55, “God, hear my prayer; do not ignore my plea” Sirota’s Fate: In 1941 Sirota and his family were trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto. That year he led High Holy Day services in the Ghetto. Sirota stayed with his community to the very end even though it is believed he could have escaped. During the Warsaw uprising in 1943, Cantor Sirota and his family were murdered on the last day of Passover along with thousands of the Ghetto’s Jews. We hear the pleading and prophetic words of the Psalm 55 sung by Cantor Gershon Sirota.

Warsaw Ghetto Walling off the Warsaw Ghetto, 1940

Warsaw Uprising Deportations

Warsaw Uprising Ghetto in flames

Portrait Two: Legacy of Mahler and Wagner

Composers in the shadow of Gustav Mahler ( ) and Richard Wagner ( ) The Second Portrait traces classical composers subsequent to Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler. Mahler and Wagner contrasted each other, one a composer of operas, the other primarily a composer of songs and symphonies, One Jewish by birth later converting to Christianity the other a hater of Jews. The baton of their late-romanticism would be passed to a new generation of composers. Their attitudes shaped both music and politics as well as the politics of music. Mahler Wagner

Mahler and Jewish Identity
“I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout all the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed.” Gustav Mahler Mahler’s music often includes Jewish themes or reflects upon Jewish sentiments as heard in his First Symphony. Mahler would have a profound influence on music of the 20th century and especially Jewish composers of the Holocaust period.

In 1850, Richard Wagner writes an anti-Semitic pamphlet, Judaism in Music (Das Judenthum in die Musik) Wagner was Hitler’s favorite composer The Nazis would exploit the pamphlet for their anti-Semitic propaganda Richard Wagner was a blatant anti-Semite. His pamphlet, Judaism in Music published in 1850 foreshadows and underscores the Third Reich’s objective to discredit, denounce, and eventually ban Jewish music, performers, conductors and composers. Wagner wrote: “Jews poison public taste in the arts.” “Jewish music lacks expression, is characterized by coldness and indifference, triviality and nonsense.” “The Jew has no true passion to impel him to artistic creation. The Jewish composer makes a confused heap of the forms and styles of all ages and masters” Wagner become for the Nazis a symbol of Germanic Music at its pinnacle. His condemnation of Jewish Music would serve the Nazi propagandists well.

Richard Strauss ( ) 1933 Appointed head of Department of Music in the propaganda Ministry 1935 Fall from approval by the Nazi Regime Richard Strauss ( ) was seen as the heir apparent to Wagner. Strauss was appointed head of the Reichsmusikkammer (Department of Music in the propaganda Ministry) in 1933. He was often at odds with the authorities as he refused to fire Jewish musicians and continued to work with Jewish librettist, Stefan Zweig and Hugo von Hofmannstahl. Joseph Goebbels felt Strauss was an opportunist and distrusted him, considering his “music borderline German”. Strauss was forced to resign in 1935 after which time his music was censored by the Reichsmusikkammer. Only his worldwide fame kept him from being a "persona non grata." Because Strauss had Jewish relatives (his daughter-in-law) he was forced to deal carefully with the authorities. There is a story that he attempted to visit his daughter-in-law's mother who was imprisoned at Terezín. The camp guards refused him entrance. Her photograph was returned to Strauss soon after her death.

Alexander von Zemlinsky ( ) Excerpt from setting of Psalm 83 Alexander von Zemlinsky was one of the most important composers and teachers of his generation. His family background is of interest, his father Adolf von Zemlinszky ( ) renounced Catholicism and converted to Judaism to marry his Jewish fiancée, Clara Semo ( ). Clara's father, Shem Tov Semo (c.1810-c.1880), was an modern-minded Jew who married a Muslim wife in Sarajevo, then part of the Austrian Empire. While Sarajevo was principally a Muslim city, there were harmonious cultural relations among Muslims, Christians and Jews. Clara raised her children in the Sephardic tradition. At age 13, Alexander played the organ in the synagogue on high holy days and festivals. In recognition of his musical ability, Alexander was admitted to the Vienna Music Conservatory. With the raise of anti-Semitism Zemlinsky fled to Prague, in 1938 to obtain his emigration papers. He immigrated to the United States in 1939. Zemlinsky had difficulty learning English. He suffered depression and wrote very little music. He was unable to secure a music post even though he was one of the most honored composers and teachers from Europe. Life was difficult for Him and his wife Luise. They depended on her ill brother for financial support. By 1940 Zemlinsky's health began to fail. He dead March 15, 1942 relativity unknown.

Franz Schreker ( ) Excerpt from setting of Psalm 116, op 6 The next composer we’ll explore is Franz Schreker ( ) Franz Schreker was born to Ignaz Schrecker, a Jewish court photographer and Eleonore von Clossmann, a member of the Catholic aristocracy of eastern Austria. After Ignaz’s death in 1888 the family moved to Vienna. Eleonore’s family refused to support them. Franz grow up in poverty – as teen played organ to help support the family. Franz Schreker, ( ) was virtually unknown to the musical world for 60 plus years. In the 1920s he was one of the most celebrated and promising composers. He wrote several operas, many based on psychological themes and insights inspired by the works of Sigmund Freud and Arthur Schnitzler. (Opera include 'Der Ferne Klang’ (The Distant Sound), 'Die Gezeichneten’ (The Marked Ones ), 'Der Schatzgräber’ (Treasure-Seeker) and 'Irrelohe‘). In 1920 Schreker became director of the Berlin Conservatory of Music and used his influence to help secure Arnold Schoenberg an appointment at the Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1925. In 1933 he fell victim to the Nazi purge of Jewish officials. Schreker was dismissed from his teaching position at the Prussian Academy of the Arts. His music was labeled “degenerate’. After this events he suffered from depression. He died of a stroke in Only recently is Schreker’s music being rediscovered. Franz Schreker, 1912 Franz Schreker, 1930

Portrait Three: Arnold Schoenberg and Modernism

Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) was born into a lower-middle-class Jewish family in Vienna. He converted Protestantism in 1898 and later would Return to Judaism. One music historian writes that his conversion to Protestantism may have resulted from his lack of exposure to Judaism and his personal struggle and spiritual quest. As early as 1923 he was already committed to Jewish national concerns and the establishment of a Jewish homeland. Schoenberg re-embraced Judaism in 1933, he claimed that he had always considered himself a Jew. That same year he was dismissed from the Prussian Academy of Arts, where he had been teaching since (this is the same school Franz Schreker was dismissed from.). He was denounced as a Jew and a leading exponent of "degenerate" art. In 1934 he emigrated to the United States and settled eventually in Los Angeles. Jewish subjects became increasingly important to him during the last two decades of his life. Between 1930 and 1932 he worked on his opera Moses und Aron, which occupies a central position in his creative work. Schoenberg wrote a setting of the Kol Nidrei In 1938, the year of the Kristallnacht, and in 1947 composed A Survivor from Warsaw. Many other works reflect Jewish themes.

Music and Vienna Musical Innovations Schoenberg’s only formal music teaching was from Alexander Zemlinsky, whose sister Schoenberg later married. His early music was influenced by Gustav Mahler and late-romanticism. Schoenberg was an innovator. Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern were the principle visionaries of the Second Viennese School of Composition. Schoenberg innovations included the use of: Sprechgesang / Sprechstimmme (a singing technique which as a cross between speaking and singing) The Development of twelve-tone composition, music that pushed the boundaries of tonality

Music Example – Six Little Piano Pieces, Op 19, No. 6

Excerpt from the opera, Moses und Aron Scene at the Burning Bush (The Calling) PLAY MUSIC We are listening to the opening scene of Moses and Aron, Moses being summons by God to lead the Jewish People.

Composer and Teacher (Univ. of California, Los Angeles)

Portrait Four: Entartete (Degenerate) Art and Music

Portrait Four: Entartete (Degenerate) Art and Music
Entartete – A phrase the Third Reich applied to music and art that was labeled as Jewish, Degenerate and "Bolshevik" Entartete Kunst Exhibit (1937 – Munich) The Fourth Portrait turns to a propaganda term used by the Third Reich to describe and discredit Art and Music they labeled degenerate. It was always linked to Jews. Entartete Kunst Exhibit (1937 – Munich) featured over one hundred artists and 650 plus works. Artists included Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall, Otto Dix, Max Ernst, George Grosz, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Oskar Kokoschka and many others. The exhibit opened in Munich and subsequently traveled to eleven other cities in Germany and Austria. The works were poorly hung, in bad lighting and hand written labels ridiculing the artists and their work. Over three million Germans and Austrians attended exhibition.

Portrait Four: Entartete (Degenerate) Kunst

Portrait Four: Entartete (Degenerate) Musik
(Wait) A second exhibit of degenerate music was held in Düsseldorf in The poster from the exhibit says it all. Jews and Blacks were linked as being deprived and savage. Note the exaggerated drawing, the earring and Jewish Star. Entartete Musik Exhibit (Düsseldorf 1938)

Prominent composers banned by the Nazis: Felix Mendelssohn Giacomo Meyerbeer Gustav Mahler Arnold Schoenberg Kurt Weill Also Jazz / Cabaret Who did the Nazis categorize as degenerate? (read list) Their music would be purged from the concert stage, their works removed from State libraries and Universities.

Gideon Klein ( ) Concert Pianist and Composer Interested in Czech Folk Songs Interned at Terezin String Trio, 1 Allegro – Work completed days prior to being sent to Auschwitz START MUSIC We’ll turn our attention to two lesser known composers, Gideon Klein and Ervin Shulhoff. Gideon Klein - Czech Composer Gideon Klein was an extraordinarily gifted Czech composer and pianist. Born to a Jewish family, Klein was brought up absorbed in Czech culture. From childhood he showed unusual talent. He attended the Prague Conservatory. The tragic course of history hampered his further studies. All Czechoslovakian universities were closed down 1939 as a consequence of the Nazi invasion. In December 1941, Klein was deported Terezin, where he spent three years. At Terezin he collaborated with his fellow inmates( Karel Ancerl, Rafael Schachter, Hans Krasa, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Karel Berman and others). Besides performing and composing, Klein gave lectures, educated the young inmates and contributed to the social and intellectual life of Terezin. In 1944, he was send to Auschwitz and later to Furstengrube in the Silesian coalmines, where he died under unclear circumstances. Many of Klein’s compositions were only rediscovered during the late 1990s. He had an intensive sense of expression. We hear the first movement of his String Trio, a work completed days prior to his transport to Auschwitz.

Erwin Schulhof ( ) Jazz Influence Hot Music Excerpt from 10 Syncopated Etudes, WV 92 START MUSIC Ervin Schulhoff - Czech Contemporary Composer Ervin Schulhoff ( ) was born to a Prague Jewish-German family. He attended the Prague, Vienna and Leipzig Conservatories of Music. He was a promising composer and pianist. His career was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War, he served as a a soldier on the eastern front. His wartime experiences reshaped his vision of the world and of art and music. Schulhoff aligned himself with German avant-garde and the Berlin Dada art movement. He incorporated Jazz elements into his music. Schulhof was detained in 1941 and imprisoned in Prague and later sent to the Wülzburg concentration camp where he died of tuberculosis in 1942.

Kurt Weill ( ) Cabaret Composer Emigrated to the United States in 1935 Next we look at Cabaret music. Kurt Weill, a son a of cantor, was a leading composer of Cabaret songs. His work includes the Threepenny Opera, Rise and fall of the city Mahagonny, Lady in the Dark, Street Scene, The Seven Deadly Sins, and many other stage and concert hall. His music was condemned as decadent by the Nazis. In 1933 Weil left Germany for France and emigrated to the United States in He is one of the few composers that had a successful career in America. Kurt Weill

Marlene Dietrich Cabaret singer / actress labeled degenerate Marlene Dietrich, the well known singer and actress played a key role in anti-Nazi efforts. She had a strong set of moral and political convictions and was not afraid speak them. She despised the Nazi Regime and the politics of anti-Semitism. She sang for the Allied troops in Algiers, France and Germany. Dietrich recorded a number of anti-Nazi records in German. She immigrated to America being a naturalized citizen in She worked for War effort. Hitler invited her to return to Germany, she replied only when her Jewish friend could also return. Marlene Dietrich

Cabaret Music Karel Svenk ( ) Karel Svenk ( ) a lesser known composer, poet, singer and actor from Prague. He was deported to the Terezín Ghetto in 1942. At Terezin, Svenk created an all-male cabaret review called "The Lost Food Card Cabaret”. His most famous poem, The Terezín Hymn served as the closing song the cabaret review, it was an anthem of the prisoners.

Terezin Hymn Days will come, days will go, Always moving restless crowd, We can’t write with only thirty words allowed. Wait for we will see a newer dawn Must rise to lift the heart, The time will come to pack our bags And home we’ll joyfully depart. We will conquer and survive All the cruelty in our land, We will laugh on ghetto ruins Hand in hand – Karel Svenk (Have someone read)

Portrait Five: Terezín Ghetto

The Fifth Portrait is of Terezin. Streets of Terezín

"Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Brings Freedom) Slogan at the Terezin Gate, the same words are posted at gates of Auschwitz.

History of Terezín (Theresienstadt) Terezin is a walled city near Prague. Prior to the Holocaust, its first famous prisoner was Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Terezin was seized and transformed by the SS in 1941 (Reinhard Heydrich). It was a charade camp presented to the outside world by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement. In reality it was a concentration camp that served as a transit point to the Nazi death camps. Terezín prisoners included gifted artists, musicians, composers and writers who, despite the unbearable living conditions, maintained a vital and creative cultural life.

Conditions In a space previously inhabited by 7,000 Czechs, over 50,000 Jews were imprisoned. Food was scarce, disease was rampant Statistics 140,000 people transported to Terezín 33,000 died from starvation, lack of medical care, disease and torture 87,000 people transported from Terezín to the Nazi death camps A total of 97,297 died among whom were 15,000 children Only 132 children survived The statistics speak of a true story of Terezin. Conditions were oppressive as 50,000 were crowded into a place formality inhabited by 7,000 Czechs. Of 15,000 Children interned at Terezin less than 150 survived. (wait)

Terezín Composers

Viktor Ullmann ( ) Viktor Ullman was perhaps the most gifted composer held at Terezin. Both his parents were Jewish, however, they converted to Catholicism before Viktor's birth. He studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander von Zemlinsky Ullmann, and his family were deported to the concentration camp Terezín in September 1942. He was assigned to the “Leisure Time Administration” (Freizeitgestaltung). His official duty was to work as a performer, composer, critic and lecture. Ironically, Many artists and musicians were able to devote more time to their art than they ever had in their free lives. At Terezín, Ullman organized chamber concerts, musical lectures, a “studio for contemporary music”. He composed twenty plus compositions during his two years of captivity, including three piano sonatas, a string quartet, dozens of songs and an opera, “The Emperor of Atlantis”.

Viktor Ullmann ( ) Example of Music written at Terezín Der Kaiser von Atlantis, oder Der Tod dankt ab (The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Abdicates) text by Peter Kien (1943) Der Kaiser von Atlantis, oder Der Tod dankt ab (The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Abdicates) Characters include a Loudspeaker and Radio, An Emperor Overall, Death, a Harlequin, a Drummer, a soldier and a girl. Synopsis: Emperor Overall resides in a far off citadel, Death, finding that the living no longer laugh, resigns, so that no- one dies. Harlequin can make no-one laugh, and Death regrets his past. The Drummer proclaims war to the finish, to the sound of Deutschland über alles (Germany above all) in a minor key… Once the Nazis realized the opera’s theme its performance for cancelled and banned, even at Terezin.

Viktor Ullmann ( ) Der Kaiser von Atlantis, oder Der Tod dankt ab (The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Abdicates) Prologue (Loudspeaker)

Viktor Ullmann ( ) Excerpt from Piano Sonata No. 7, (1944) Theme from a Hebrew Folksong

Hans Krasa ( ) The next Terezin composer will discuss is Hans Krasa. Krasa was a student of Alexander Zemlinsky (there is a pattern here) He was deported to Terezín August 1943, sent to Auschwitz in 1944. His is the composer of a Children’s Opera titled Brundibár. Brundibár composed in 1938 for a public. Its premiere was preempted by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. Krása while interned at Terezín, Krasa re-scored the opera for instrumentation available at the camp. Brundibár was performed over 50 times at the camp. Composer to Children’s Opera, Brundibár

Brundibár Performance at Terezín START MUSIC Bunidar is a story about two children, Annika and Pepicek “Aninka and Pepicek go to the market to try to get some milk for their ailing mother. They notice that whenever the organ grinder Brundibár plays music, people throw money into a hat placed on the street. Aninka and Pepicek sing their favorite song, but nobody listens to them. They soon are chased away from the market.” “The two children are puzzled. How can they sing louder and draw attention away from the organ grinder? They decide that if they had many children, that might solve the problem.” “A dog, a cat, and a sparrow arrive and promise to help them. The animals round up all of the children in the town to make a large choir. The plan works: The children's song is louder than the organ grinder's music and soon, with a crowd drawing near to listen, Pepicek's cap is full of coin. Brundibár suddenlyappears, grabs the cap and tries to flee. He is one against many and is easily stopped. The children celebrate their victory, as the choir sings of friendship and support for one another.”

Brundibár Recordings and Books

Terezín Beautification program (Verschönerung) and the deception of the International Red Cross On October 5, 1943, Danish Jews were transported into Terezín The Danish Red Cross and the Swedish Red Cross inquired about their whereabouts and living condition. The Nazis decided to let them visit one location that would prove to the Danes and to the world that Jews were living under humane conditions. To prepare for the inspection, all buildings and grounds were enhanced by planting grass, flowers. Benches were added. A playground, sports fields, and even a monument were built. Sign were posted including one read ‘Boys' School’, and ‘School not in session for vacation’ – there never was a school. The Next step included dealing with undesirable detainees, On May 12, 1944, Camp Commander, SS Colonel Karl Rahm ordered the deportation of 7,500 orphans and sick inhabitants to Auschwitz. June 23, 1944, the Nazis commenced the tour to the Red Cross, the event was “well-rehearsed”. The Red Cross were shown bakers baking bread, a load of fresh vegetables being delivered, and workers singing along the route. The deception worked, the Camp passed the Red Cross inspection. Red Cross Commission arrival at Terezin Drawing by Helga Weissova (1944)

After the Red Cross approval, the Nazis decided to take their deception to a new level, making a propaganda film on location at Terezin. "Kurt Gerron, Film Director and Terezin prisoner, was recruited by the Nazis to make a film to be titled, “The Führer gives the Jews a City”. Skip the background if time an issue Kurt Gerron background - Premiered Mackie Messer in 1928 (Prague) The Blue Angel - Kurt Gerron featured in Josef Von Sternberg film along with Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Rosa Valetti, Hans Albers (1930) Die Dreigroschenoper (Three Penny Opera) 1930 Berlin Production by Kurt Weill, Libretto by Bertold Brecht featured Kurt Gerron, Lotte Lenja, Erich Ponto, Willy Trenk-Trebitsch, Erika Helmke He is force to leave the film studios by the Nazis. Fled to Paris and later to Amsterdam. He is captured in Amsterdam and deported to Terezin. Kurt Gerron, Jewish film director, singer, actor and Terezin prisoner Mackie Messer featured in the 1930 Berlin production the Three Penny Opera (Weill/Brecht)

“The Führer gives the Jews a City” Gerron’s Terezin film featured musical groups like the ‘Ghetto Swingers’ conducted by Martin Roman The movie includes the Jazz Group, The Ghetto Swingers

It depicted Jazz and cabaret music. Jazz ensembles complete with saxophones, brass, and guitars. A crowd is shown at an ‘outing’ enjoying music and life at Terezin. Ghetto Swingers as depicted in propaganda film (1944)

Scene from “The Führer gives the Jews a City” After the filming was completed most of the cast, and nearly all the children were deported to Auschwitz The movie depiction of Happy / Healthy Children Concert Scene

I Wander through Theresienstadt I wander through Theresienstadt My heart is full of lead Until the path abruptly ends There is no way ahead Upon the bridge I stand and see The valley that unfolds I wish the gates would set me free I long to go back home My home what magic in the sound It tears my weary heart They’ve robbed me of my home and ground I never wish to part I turn and walk back on the path Abandoned and in pain Theresienstadt, Theresienstadt, Will suffering be in vain Will we be free again? Ilse Weber

Portrait Six: Music of Despair, Resistance and Hope

Music of the Extermination Camps Street Songs from the Ghettos Partisan Songs The Legacy and survival of music from the Holocaust period

Music of the Extermination Camps Why did the Nazis have orchestras in concentration and extermination camps? The Nazis created orchestras of prisoner-musicians at each extermination camp Auschwitz had six orchestras, one of which contained musicians, and an women's orchestra The orchestras were forced to play while their fellow prisoners marched to the gas chambers. Some Nazis realized the advantage of having music dupe the unsuspecting and weary prisoners on arrival or when sending them on their way to the gas-chambers. Then there were those in the Nazi hierarchy who believed that music would enhance their own entertainment. For instance, when victims were cruelly treated during long roll-calls on parade grounds, counting prisoners in marching columns to and from work detail, or during executions. However, the most logical answer still seems to be that many of the cruel Nazi hangman officials had a taste for good music.

Men's Orchestra Auschwitz

The Nazis chose 40 women for the All-Women orchestra at Auschwitz. These musicians escaped gas chambers by being selected to perform in the extermination camp. They knew that as they played for arriving prisoners, the new arrivals were condemned. Their music was intended to make the unsuspecting Jews docile as they were led to the gas chambers. ---- In 1995, eleven surviving females of the “Women’s Orchestra" come together on the 50th anniversary of Auschwitz to meet and recall stories of their position in the Holocaust, in which their musical abilities enabled them to live. The documentary “Bach in Aucshwitz” chronicles the reunion. Women's Orchestra Auschwitz-Birkenau

Orchestra Buchenwald

Orchestra - Janovska (Lvov)

The Mathausen at Orchestra was forced to play leading a prisoner off to his execution. Orchestra Mathausen

Children listen to a violinist at Westerbork Concentration Camp

Street Songs from the Ghettos The Jewish Ghettos streets included musicians, they songs emphasized hunger, the desperate conditions, a longing for freedom, and a call to revolt. Mordecai Gebirtig ( ), a Yiddish Poet born in Kraków represents the music of the Ghettos. He worked as a carpenter became one of the most popular folk poets. Gebirtig was deported to the Kraków Ghetto and was murdered there in 1942 Street Musicians in Warsaw Ghetto

Mordecai Gebirtig Es Brent (Our Town Is Burning) written in 1938, became one of the most well known songs in the ghettos and concentration camps

Es brent, briderlekh, es brent. Undzer orem shtetl, nebekh, brent! Beyze vintn irgazon, Brekhn, brenen un tseblozn, Un ir shteyt un kukt, Azoy zikh, mit farleygte hent. Oy, ir shteyt un kukt Azoy zikh, vi undzer shtetl brent It is burning, brothers, it is burning. Our poor little town, a pity, burns! Furious winds blow, Breaking, burning and scattering, And you stand around With folded arms. O, you stand and look While our town burns.

Music of the Partisans

Music of the Partisans Our final topic is music of the Partisan Fighters. Some 20, ,000 Jews escaped the ghettos and camps, and fled to the nearby forests where they formed resistance groups. Music was an important for moral and unity. The text to Partisan songs were in many languages including Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, French, and English.

Hirsh Glick was a popular poet. He worked with the FPO (United Partisans) while trapped in the Vilna Ghetto. In 1943, the Nazis captured him and sent him to an Estonian concentration camp. He escaped in 1944 and tried to rejoin the partisans, but and was probably executed by German soldiers. Hirsh Glick – (1920 b. Vilna, Lithuania. – 1944?)

Hirsh Glick His poem, "Zog Nit Keyn mol," (“Never Say that You are Trotting the Final Path”) became the anthem of the Partisans Never say that you are going on your final path Though leaden clouds may be concealing skies of blue - Because the hour we have hungered for is near; And our marching steps will thunder: We are here! Because the hour we have hungered for is near; And our marching steps will thunder: We are here!

Shmerke Kaczerginski ( ) Partisan fighter, music archivist and publisher Shmerke Kaczerginski ( ) was another Jewish poet and partisan who was active in the Vilna ghetto. He smuggled arms into the ghetto and saved approximated 8,000 volumes in the Vilna ghetto archives from destruction. In 1943, he escaped the ghetto, and joined the partisans. Kaczerginski collected and preserved many of the partisan and ghetto songs, which have survived today.

Yid, du partisan

Music and film credits:
Felix Mendelssohn - Coro 'Wie der Hirsch schreit‚ - Psalm 42. La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale, Ensemble Gustav Mahler: Sinfonie Nr. 1 D-dur "Der Titan” Dirigent: Riccardo Chailly, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig Gershon Sirota - Psalm 55. The Pearls of Cantorial Music Alexander Zemlinsky, excerpt from Psalm 83. Complete choral works abd orchestral songs. Gurzenich-Orchester Kolner Philarmoniker. Chor des Stadt. Musikvereins zy Dusseldorf. James Conlon. EMI Classics Franz Schreker, excerpt from Psalm 116. Kolner Rundfunkorchester Peter Gulke. Gert Westphal. WDR Arnold Schoenberg, Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19, No. 6 Arnold Schoenberg, Moses und Aron. Act 1. Scene 1. The Appointment. Soloists, BBC Singers, Orpheus Boys' Choir, BBC SO, P Boulez Gideon Klein. String Trio, 1 Allegro. Forbidden Music. Klein, Krasa & Schulhoff. Hope, Dukas, Warkins. Nimbus Records Ervin Schulhoff, ‘Hot Music’ Excerpt from 10 Syncopated Etudes, WV 92. Kathryn Stott, piano. BIS. Viktor Ullmann, The Emperor of Atlantis, Music from Terezin. Conducted by Robert DeCormier. Members of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. AR Viktor Ullmann, Die Klaviersonaten. Konrad Richter, piano. Sonata No. 7, theme from Hebrew folk song. Bayer Records. Hans Krasa, Brundibar, Children’s Opera in two acts. Disman Radio Children’s Ensemble, Prague. Joza Karas. Cannel Classics Kurt Weill, Mackie Messer featured in the 1930 Berlin production the Three Penny Opera (Weill/Brecht) Kurt Gerron, excerpt from “The Führer gives the Jews a City” Ilse Weber: Ich Wandre Durch Theresienstadt , Anne Sofie Von Otter, Bengt Forsberg, Bebe Risenfors Karel Svenk, Terezin Hymn. Downtown Music Productions. Mimi Stern-Wolfe. Leonardo Mordecai Gebirtag, Krakow Ghetto Notebook. Es Brent. Daniel Kempin. Koch International Classics. Hirsh Glick, Zog Nit Keyn mol, Rise up and Flight! Songs of the Jewish Partisans. Theodore Bikel. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Shmerke Kaczerginski, Yid, du Partisan. Rise up and Flight! Songs of the Jewish Partisans. Theodore Bikel. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This presentation was compiled for Yom HaShoah Observance, May 4, 2005
Temple Judea Mitzpah, Skokie, Illinois It may not be shown for profit, copied or distributed. Revisions, March 14, 2011 for JUF PSDP Presentation Six Musical Portraits Jewish Music of the Holocaust Stewart Cherlin © 2005, 2011

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