Risposte

La musica nei campi e nei ghetti nazisti

È probabile che nella maggior parte dei circa 10.000 campi nazisti ci fosse una qualche forma di musica. La creazione di musica nei campi di concentramento avveniva in condizioni estreme di prigionia.

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La musica nei campi di sterminio

Anche nei campi di sterminio la musica svolgeva un ruolo importante nella vita quotidiana. Vennero istituite orchestre ufficiali che si esibivano ai cancelli del campo al mattino e alla sera e in concerti settimanali. I prigionieri continuavano anche a fare musica in segreto, lontano dagli occhi vigili delle SS.

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Prigionieri in fila nel cortile dell'Oranienburg

I comandanti del campo hanno riferito di canti gioiosi dei prigionieri come parte di una propaganda concertata per nascondere gli orrori del campo.                                                                                    

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I sopravvissuti del ghetto di Łódź formano gli Happy Boys

Gli artisti e gli spettacoli organizzati erano come pane e patate per gli abitanti del ghetto di Łódź. Concerti e spettacoli teatrali si tenevano nella "Casa della Cultura" fondata dal "più anziano degli ebrei" Mordechai Khayim Rumkowski.

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Tortura sonora a Dachau

La musica prodotta da un altoparlante situato sulla Schubraumgebäude, proveniente da dischi o dalla radio, aveva un effetto schiacciante sui prigionieri.                                                                      

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Tra gli orrori dell'Olocausto, i campi e i ghetti divennero il cupo palcoscenico di un dramma unico e tragico: le esperienze di musicisti e compositori. Questa sezione esplora le loro vite in circostanze inimmaginabili, dove la musica, simbolo di bellezza ed espressione, ha assunto ruoli complessi e spesso paradossali.

Esploreremo le diverse esperienze dei musicisti imprigionati: esecuzioni forzate utilizzate per la propaganda e il controllo, composizioni clandestine di conforto e sfida, e la lotta per mantenere l'identità artistica di fronte a sofferenze inimmaginabili. Questa sezione evidenzia la resilienza dello spirito umano e il potere della musica di trascendere anche le circostanze più oscure.

Diana Blumenfeld

Musicista
Cantante
Attore

Diana Blumenfeld (1903–1961) was a folksinger, pianist, and actress. Caught in the ghetto along with her husband, family and friends, she continued to sing, performing in cafes and in the ghetto theatre.

Yankl Krimski

Musicista
Attore

Yankl Krimski was a theatre artist and musician in the Vilna ghetto. One of his most popular songs was 'Dos Elnte Kind' (The Lonely Child). Krimski’s fate is uncertain, but he is believed to have perished in an Estonian labour camp in 1943.

Mordechai Gebirtig

Poeta
Attore
Compositore

Poet, actor and songwriter Mordechai Gebirtig (1877-1942) was politically active and called 'the perfect Jewish folk poet'. His songs provide a window into daily Jewish life in inter-war Poland.

Isa Vermehren

Cantante
Attore

Isa Vermehren (1918-2009) volunteered to support the German troops as an entertainer between 1940 and 1943. Due to her brother's defection she was taken to Ravensbrück, where she was locked in an isolation cell.

Benzion Moskovits

Cantore

In 1942 Cantor Benzion Moskovitsh (1907-1968) was deported to Westerbork and in 1944 to Buchenwald. There he sang for fellow prisoners and took notes of melodies he heard on a smuggled block-note.

Yehoshua Wieder

Cantore

Cantor Yehoshua Wieder and his family were deported to Auschwitz, where his wife Chana and three youngest children were killed. Wieder and his three other children survived.

Charles Lowy

Cantore

Cantor Charles Lowy (1911-1998) escaped Munich after Kristallnacht to Hungary and became chief cantor in Szolnok. From 1942 he was subjected to forced labour and liberated by the Red Army in 1945. His wife and son were killed in Auschwitz.

Gershon Sirota

Cantore

Gershon Sirota (1874-1943) was one of the leading cantors of Europe during the "Golden Age of Hazzanut", sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Caruso". He and his family died together in the Warsaw uprising in 1943.

Viktor Ullmann

Insegnante di musica
Compositore
Direttore d'orchestra

Composer Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) grew up and was educated in Vienna. He was trapped in Prague on the German invasion in March 1939 after trying unsuccessfully to find work in London or South Africa. In 1942 he was deported to Terezin.

Carlo Taube

Musicista
Compositore
Direttore d'orchestra

In December 1941, pianist, composer and conductor Carlo Sigmund Taube (1897-1944) was deported to Theresienstadt with his wife and child.

James Simon

Compositore

In spring 1944, composer, pianist and musicologist James Simon (1880-1944) was sent to Westerbork. On April 4 he was deported with 1000 other inmates to Terezín. On 12 October 1944 he boarded the transport to Auschwitz.

Zikmund Schul

Compositore

The composer and violinist Zikmund Schul (1916-1944) and his father left Germany in October 1933, taking residence in Prague. He was transported to Terezín on 11 November 1941 where he continued to compose pieces, few of which survive.

Rafael Schächter

Musicista
Compositore
Direttore d'orchestra

Rafael Schächter (1905-1944) made his name as an accompanist and vocal coach, working in opera and theatre before deportation to Terezin in Nov 1941. A pioneer of cultural life in the ghetto, he was deported to Auschwitz on 16 Oct 1944.

Dovid Ayznshtat

Compositore
Direttore d'orchestra

Dovid Ayznshtat (1890–1942) continued to compose, conduct, perform, and train aspiring musicians, in the Warsaw Ghetto, despite the limitations and dangers of ghetto life.

Misha Veksler

Compositore
Direttore d'orchestra

The conductor and composer Misha Veksler (1907-1943) became an important figure in the musical world of the Vilna ghetto, serving as the conductor of the theatre orchestra and composing music for many of the revues that were performed there.

Wolf Durmashkin

Musicista
Compositore
Direttore d'orchestra

Wolf Durmashkin (1914–1944) was a Jewish composer, conductor and pianist in Vilnius. He was deported to Klooga during the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto and was killed one day before liberation.

Martin Rosenberg

Direttore

In 1933, Rosebury D’Arguto’s activities with his Gesangsgemeinschaft was banned. On a return trip to Germany to settle some personal matters in September 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo, and taken to Sachsenhausen where he organized a Jewish choir.

Kurt Gerron

Attore
Direttore

A cabaret artist, theatre and film actor and director of theatre and early sound movies, Kurt Gerron (1897-1944) was a successful entertainer of the 1920s and early 1930s. He directed the Terezin propaganda film and was killed soon after.

Jehovah's Witnesses

testimone di Geova

Erich Hugo Frost

Musicista
testimone di Geova

Composer and musician Erich Hugo Frost (1900-1987) was imprisoned several times in prisons and concentration camps between 1934 and 1945. He composed ‘Fest steht in großer, schwerer Zeit (Stand Fast in Great and Hard Times) in the spring of 1941.

Yankl Trupyanski

Songwriter
Insegnante di musica

Yankl Trupyanski was (1909-1944) a music teacher and composer of children's songs in Warsaw and Vilna. He composed many of the songs sung by children in the Yiddish schools of the inter-war years.

Zofia Czajkowska

Insegnante di musica
Musicista
Direttore d'orchestra

The Polish music teacher Zofia Czajkowska arrived in Auschwitz on 27 April 1942 on a transport from her home town of Tarnow. She was to become the original organiser and first conductor of the Birkenau women’s orchestra.

Hans Neumeyer

Insegnante di musica
Compositore

From the age of fourteen, Hans Neumeyer (1887-1944), a composer and teacher of musical composition, was completely blind. He died whilst interned in Theresienstadt on 19 May 1944.

Leo Strauss

Songwriter
Musicista

Leo Straus (1897-1944) was arrested along with his wife Myra and sent to Theresienstadt where he was involved in cabaret productions, both as a librettist and performer. In October 1944, they were deported to Auschwitz and killed.

Egon Ledeč

Musicista
Compositore

Egon Ledeč (1889-1944) was a Czech violinist and composer sent to Theresienstadt. He appears as the concertmaster in Karel Ančerl’s orchestra in the Nazi propaganda film of the camp.

Artur Gold

Musicista

Artur Gold (1897-1943) è stato un violinista e compositore polacco. Collaborò con il fratello Henryk Gold e con Jerzy Petersburski, con cui arrangiò la musica. Lui e i suoi colleghi musicisti furono uccisi durante le ultime settimane di Treblinka.

Wladyslaw Szpilman

Musicista

The musical career of Wladyslaw Szpilman (1911-2000) was interrupted by the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Szpilman and his family were driven, along with hundreds of thousands of other Jews, into the Warsaw ghetto.

Avraham Sutzkever

Partigiano
Poeta

Avraham Sutzkever (1913-2010) is one of the most important contemporary Yiddish poets. During the war, Sutzkever was involved in many acts of resistance and helped save many important texts. He escaped to Moscow with his wife.

Leah Rudnitski

Partigiano
Poeta

Leah Rudnitski (1916-1943) wrote one of the most beautiful lullabies to have survived the Vilna ghetto, entitled ‘Dremlen feygl oyf di tsvaygn’ (Birds doze on the boughs). She was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Treblinka, where she was murdered.

Shmerke Kaczerginski

Musicista
Partigiano
Poeta

Poet and partisan fighter Shmerke Kaczerginski (1908-1954) was a collector of Yiddish Shoah song. He was sent to the Vilna ghetto in early 1942 where he crafted songs to console prisoners and encourage resistance.

Hirsh Glick

Partigiano
Poeta

Hirsch Glick (1922-1944) was a Jewish poet and partisan. He began to write Yiddish poetry in his teens and became co-founder of Yungvald, a group of young Jewish poets.

Wladyslaw Szlengel

Poeta

Władysław Szlengel (1912-1943) was a Jewish-Polish poet, lyricist, journalist, and stage actor. He was shot along with his wife at the age of 28.

Isaiah Shpigl

Poeta

Writer, poet and teacher of Yiddish literature, Isaiah Spiegel (1906-1990), was an inmate of the Lodz Ghetto from its inception in 1940 until its liquidation in 1945. In August 1944, Shpigl hid some of his writings in a cellar and took the rest with him to Auschwitz.

Moshe Diskant

Poeta

An important poet and song writer in the Kovno ghetto, Moshe Diskant was critical of the divisions between wealthy and poor in the ghetto.

Avrom Akselrod

Poeta
Compositore

Avrom Akselrod was a well-known poet and songwriter in the Kovno ghetto, known for his cynical, humorous and realistic depictions of the misery and occasional joys of ghetto life.

Karel Berman

Cantante

Bass singer Karel Berman (1919-1995) was deported to Terezin on 6 Mar 1943. He sang in operas and recitals and was cast as 'Death' in Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Transported to Auschwitz on 28 Sep 1944 and liberated from the Allach camp.

Marysia Ayznshtat

Cantante

Marysia Ayznshtat (1921-1942) è stata una delle figure musicali più amate del ghetto di Varsavia. Fu uccisa da un ufficiale delle SS all'età di ventuno anni.

Khayele Rozental

Cantante

Khayele Rozental (1924-1979) was one of the most popular singers in the Vilna ghetto. She established her talents in drama and singing aged 16, when she was chosen to represent Vilna at the Festival of Songs in Moscow.

Lyube Levitski

Cantante

Soprano Lyube Levitski's beautiful voice made her a star at the age of 21. In the Vilna ghetto she was lashed, kept in solitary confinement for a month, and eventually killed at Ponar.

Risposta

Brundibár

Risposta

Camp System

An overview of the types of internment camps within the camp system of the Third Reich related to major phases of the Nazi regime.

Risposta

Classical Singers and the Holocaust

From 1933, a fine voice and vocal artistry were passports to freedom for some classically trained Jewish singers. But many singers could not escape.

Risposta

Eugen Engel

Composer Eugen Engel (1875-1943) found it increasingly difficult to pursue his musical activities. In 1943 He was deported to Sobibór death camp.

Risposta

Marysia Ayznshtat

Marysia Ayznshtat (1921-1942) è stata una delle figure musicali più amate del ghetto di Varsavia. Fu uccisa da un ufficiale delle SS all'età di ventuno anni.

Risposta

Music in the Nazi Camps and Ghettos

Music existed in most Nazi camps. Evidence comes from testimonies and concert programmes, posters, tickets, prisoner drawings and surviving compositions.

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