The Hope That Music Gave Millions

For decades, if not centuries, music has been apart of people’s life and culture. It has been a gateway for some to not only define their identity, but to honor it. Music can serve as a pass time that units one another with similar passions and interests, giving them a sense of belonging. It may also be used to pay homage to their land and heritage. Needless to say, music, regardless of it’s use or outlook, is a lifeline to those who appreciate it as such. It is a beacon of hope to those who otherwise feel lost. During World War II that beacon was a vital component in keeping any sort of spirit remotely alive. In a time of great hardship and sadness, music and the meaning, history, and symbolization that accompanied it, gave a culture of millions feelings of hope, escape, and remembrance of who they were in a time where they were dehumanized. Music, whether it was by playing or listening, saved lives to those enduring the tragedy that was the Holocaust. The art of composing left a testament to what an entire race endured, and the beauty of listening to their peoples music gave Jews hope and distraction during a time it was needed most.

Music served as a lifeline in the obvious sense that it provided psychological benefits to Jews during World War II; however, the act of actually making and performing music quite literally saved lives. Music was both composed and performed by prisoners in concentration camps, solely for the benefit of the Germans. Although, most of the music made in the camps was not done willingly, it gave the people apart of the camps orchestra and choir a reason to be kept alive. Said orchestras and choirs were used to compete against other camps for the guards mere amusement and dominant display of pride. Sadly, it was also used as a form of embarrassment and harassment when the guards made the prisoners perform on the spot. The guards intent was to break musicians with their constant orders to perform. Another reason for forcing prisoners to create music was to produce a camp anthem, to distinguish one from the next. One of the first and most known anthems to be made came from the camp of Borgermoor. After becoming a popular success other camp commanders demanded their own anthem as to raise the pride and profile of their camps. For the commanders it was used for things like marching drills, roll calls and over all distinction from other camps; however, for the prisoners they sang out their anthems as a symbol of hope. Even though music was a form of forced punishment, prisoners used this hope to remember their strength.

However, music made in the camps was not always forced. Prisoners composed music for themselves as well as for other inmates as a type of homage to their shared culture. During concentration camps the inmates were dehumanized and terrorized but the art of making music reminded them of where they came from and who they were. It evoked a sense of identity that they felt they were losing. Unfortunately, the inmates were only allowed to compose or perform during their leisure time, during which they put on shows and performances. This became the highpoint of their horrific circumstances. Said shows and performances were only authorized through commander approval. Any sort of music in reference to politics or the government was illegal, forcing the inmates to compose and sing them in secret. As for legal performance, they were to always be approved by camp commanders. Due to the entertainment they provided, commanders often times allowed as well as forced musicians to perform. This gave a relationship between the SS and the in prisoned musicians that sparked envy in other inmates. In addition, the relationship between the two left the musicians with a feeling of guilt for their talent. While that talent became a tool for survival and less harsh punishments, it meant a sort of dependency they did not want.

In addition to receiving ‘better’ treatment at execution camps, prominent musicians and artists were sent to a camp by the name of Terezin. It was there that prisoners performed and produced the most. The camp was home to wonderful talent; however, Hitler and the Nazi party used the prisoners talent to promote propaganda for the outside world. The Red Cross visited Terezin at one point, but before arriving the Germans spruced the camp up in order to make it seem like they have given Jews a safe place so to speak. Whilst visiting the camp, the talented inmates put on performances for the Red Cross as apart of the camps cover up to deceive the world. One was titled ‘Brundibar’, a children’s opera about an evil man stealing money from children’s earnings but ends up getting taken down. Although the opera was commissioned and held for German propaganda purposes it gave distraction to the children performing as well as to their fellow inmates watching. It also gave them a certain hidden voice, due to the fact the play was really about taking a stand to Hitlers injustice. Sadly, after the opera had come to a close most of the cast were sent to execution camps to be put to death by the gas chambers. The entire camp/ghetto of Terezin was a pure propaganda showcase, but nevertheless it was home to beautiful composers that were able to create for a brief time before being sent to the East to be gassed.

Despite horrific times, composers and producers were not silenced. They found ways to create. A remarkable example of the this is the story of Rudolf Karel, a prominent composer who was imprisoned for aiding a resistance. He was not given any sort of paper to write his compositions but instead he used toilet paper, due to the fact he was suffering from dysentery. Karel died from this infection in the aforementioned camp Terezin before ever being able to properly compose his writings. However, a man named Francesco Lotoro, an Italian musicologist, was able to find his writings and recreate them for the first time since it was originally written down. This piece was not the only one to be found and rebuilt by Lotoro. The musicologist has discovered hundreds and thousands of compositions from the time of the Holocaust in order to ‘fill the hole left in Europe's musical history and show how even the horrors of the Holocaust could not suppress artistic inspiration’ (Poggiolo, 2013). Poggiolo, author of the article ‘Honoring 'Our Will To Live: The Lost Music Of The Holocaust’ quotes Lotoro saying “They wanted to leave a testament; they leave to us music”. And a testament they did in fact leave.

Another prominent composer Lotoro pays respect to is a man named Viktor Ullman. Ullman was yet another composer held in the Terezin camp. There, it is said he composed over twenty operas. He died in Aushwitz among the gas chambers. Before being sent to death Ullman wrote an essay in which Lotoro later spoke about. In the essay the prominent composer says, “By no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon and our endeavor with respect to arts was commensurate with our will to live”.

While the art of producing, performing, and listening to music was still technically possible, the circumstances in doing these things at the time of the Holocaust were still horribly tragic. Nevertheless, as mentioned previously, music served as a spot of light in the midst of their dark surroundings. Despite not being allowed to sing particular pieces, Jews sang for hope, literally. Prisoners sang what is now to be known as Israel’s national anthem, Hatikvah, literally meaning ‘the hope’. Reading the transcribed English version of the song, it is clear why such a song was defiantly sang during the time of World War II. The two stanza anthem speaks words of hope, entailing that it is not lost and as long as the Jewish spirit remains so does the hope of freedom. This song was seen as dangerous to the Germans because it represented the act of resistance. Prisoners were beaten and severely punished for partaking in this act; however, it did not stop them. The Nazi’s were not able to silence their hope. Rafael Medoff quotes Filip Muller, a Sonderkommando, in his article ‘Holocaust and Hatikvah: A Song of Hope in a Time of Despair’, saying: “To be allowed to die together was the only comfort left to these people… And when they sang Hatikvah, now the national anthem of the state of Israel, they were glancing into the future, but it was a future which they would not be allowed to see. To me the bearing of my countrymen seemed an exemplary gesture of national honor and national pride which stirred my soul”. They cried out this song whilst facing inevitable death on the way to the gas chamber. The prisoners knew there was no hope for their own lives, as they were marching to their death sentence, but yet they sang. It was not entirely for themselves but rather their people and the hope that one day again their people will be free among their homeland.

Music, for Jews, had its place during the Holocaust through acts of composing and performing of course, but it also had its significant post-war. Musicals and concerts were created post-war by various composers as way to tell the story of and give voice to loved ones lost. While some pieces were originally composed during the actual Holocaust amidst concentration camps and later reconstructed, others were created by composers looking to pay tribute to the Holocaust victims and show pride and honor of the race in which they came from. A race that was once seen as inferior and worthless. One of the more popular musical pieces regarding the Holocaust is a cantata titled ‘A Survivor from Warsaw’ by prominent composer Arnold Schoenberg. The twelve-tone fictional piece was meant to give the audience a portrayal of the Warsaw ghetto. It is a first person narrated performance where the ‘survivor’ speaks about his lost memories due to trauma he witnessed. He speaks of his past through fragmented memories, showing proof of his psychological trauma. The piece is performed by the narrator both singing and speaking his, what can be remembered, past at Warsaw. In the prologue the cantata reads “I cannot remember everything. I must have been unconscious most of the time. I remember only the grandiose moment when they all started to sing, as if pre-arranged, the old prayer they had neglected for so many years – the forgotten creed!”.

Another infamous musical response to the Holocaust was an electronically based music performance titled ‘Different Trains’, by Steve Reich in 1988. It is a semi-autobiographical piece that takes aspects of his life in America versus what his life would be like if he was a European Jew during the Holocaust as oppose to an American Jew. Inspiration for this piece came from a personal thought of his. As a child, Reich would travel via train frequently due to his divorced parents living in different states. After becoming a composer he looked back at these train ride memories and could not help but think that if he had been in Europe at that time he would be riding on a very different train. He electronically incorporated testimonials and sound clips from various survivors, shedding light on the very different lives of European and American Jews. The musical experience was said to be divided into three categories, 'America, before the war', 'Europe, during the war' and 'After the war’ (Vlodarski, Musical Holocaust Memorials). The musical piece calls for the audience to reflect on two very different worlds lived despite being of the same race and time period of one another.

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Museums can be filled based on music and its relation to the Holocaust. One can only begin to understand the relationship between the two. It cannot be fully understood due to unfortunate holes that the world sadly may never fill. Holes that formed through mass genocide of a targeted race. The world can only come to know the the relationship between music and World War II through compositional findings, survival testimonials, and tributes created by fellow Jews. However, despite not being able to completely understand the relationship, we are given a consensus that music gave hope, honor, and identification to several millions of Jews. It is with this hope that gave many Jews an unbreakable spirit despite the Nazi’s best efforts. Whether musical life was forced or composed and performed on its own free will it served as a necessary distraction during a historical tragedy. As a whole it was a beacon of hope to musicians and non musicians alike. As long as hope remained and Hatikvah’s was sang, spirits could not be broken, giving corroboration to the power of music.

'As long as within our hearts

The Jewish soul sings,

As long as forward to the East

To Zion, looks the eye –

Our hope is not yet lost,

It is two thousand years old,

To be a free people in our land

The land of Zion and Jerusalem'.

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