Music and the Holocaust

The Nazi ghettos and camps housed millions of people from across Europe, and their responses to internment were as diverse as the religions, ages, and nationalities they represented. For Jewish victims, music was a valuable medium of expression and an integral part of daily life in the ghettos.

We can learn much about prisoners’ responses to daily life in the camps through the music they created and performed. In addition to Jews, Nazi camp prisoners included thousands of German and Polish political prisoners, Roma and Sinti, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Even in the death camps, music played an important role in daily life. Official orchestras were established that performed at the camp gates in the mornings and evenings, and at weekly concerts. Prisoners also continued their own secret music-making away from the watchful eyes of the SS.

In the decades since 1945, music has continued to be a valuable medium for those expressing responses to the Holocaust—from Jewish victims in Displaced Persons’ camps to the millions of people worldwide that have been affected in some way by the genocide.