Navigation – Plan du site

AccueilNuméros124Dossier. La musique dans les campsMusic in Concentration Camps 1933...

Dossier. La musique dans les camps

Music in Concentration Camps 1933–1945

Guido Fackler
Traduction de Peter Logan
p. 60-83

Notes de la rédaction

Translation from the German

This article was originally published in 2007 in Music and Politics 1(1) under a under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 License. It was reprinted with the permission of the author.

Texte intégral

  • 1 See Playing for Time: The Musicians of Auschwitz (Fénelon 1977). Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay (...)

1It would be wrong to reduce the “Music of the Shoah” (Holocaust/churbn) to the Yiddish songs from the ghetto camps of Eastern Europe or to the multiple activities in the realm of classical or Jewish music found in the ghetto camp at Theresienstadt, which of course enjoyed a special status as a model camp. It would be equally wrong to restrict our view of music in concentration camps to the Moorsoldatenlied [The Peat Bog Soldiers], the Buchenwald Song, the Dachau Song, or the so-called “Girls’ Orchestra in Auschwitz”, described by Fania Fénelon – also the subject of the Hollywood film entitled Playing for Time.1 Instead of this, I wish to address the topic of musical activities in general in the concentration camps (see Fackler 2000). This article is about those camps that the Nazi regime started to erect just a few weeks after Hitler’s assumption of power. They formed the seed from which the entire system of Nazi camps grew, and which eventually consisted of over 10,000 camps of various kinds (see Weinmann 1990; Schwarz 1996).

2In fact music was an integral part of camp life in almost all the Nazi-run camps. The questions covered by my research include: how was it possible to play music in these camps? What musical forms developed there? What, under these circumstances, was the function, the effect and the significance of music for both the suffering inmates and the guards who inflicted the suffering? And how were the musical activities affected by the development of the concentration camp system? My research is based on extensive archive work, the study of memoirs and literature, and interviews with witnesses. In the first part of this essay I describe the various forms of music performed by order of the SS in the camps. In the second part, I analyze the very different topic of musical activities initiated by the inmates themselves.

Music on command

3Almost every camp inmate was inescapably confronted in one way or another with music in the course of his or her camp imprisonment. This happened mainly within the officially prescribed framework of daily life in the camps: singing was required and there were camp orchestras; but music was also played over loudspeakers. Besides these occasions, camp inmates were forced to perform music for the SS “after hours”, as it were.

4Once the camp system had been developed, the most common form of music on command in the concentration camps was singing (see Fackler 2000, 130–151, 157–161, 329–340; 2001a). The inmates received the order to strike up a song from a guard, for example, or from a prisoner functionary (the latter were prisoners to whom the SS had delegated such special organizational and administrative tasks as leading a work detail or supervising a block: for example, a Kapo). This form of collective music derives from military tradition, where even today singing is used to develop discipline, encourage marching rhythm, or to symbolize the acquisition of such soldierly virtues as “proper order”. The practice was employed in concentration camps, however, with the additional purpose of exercising mental and physical force. The guards used singing on command to intimidate insecure prisoners: it frightened, humiliated, and degraded them. After a long day of hard manual work, being forced to sing meant an enormous physical effort for the weakened prisoners.

This pen-and-ink drawing under the title “Wymarsz komand do praxy” (“Marching to work”), from the cycle “Day of the prisoner” (1950), was made by Mieczysław Koscielniak, a former prisoner, in 1950

This pen-and-ink drawing under the title “Wymarsz komand do praxy” (“Marching to work”), from the cycle “Day of the prisoner” (1950), was made by Mieczysław Koscielniak, a former prisoner, in 1950

It shows a work detail leaving Auschwitz: in the background a prisoner can be seen conducting the camp orchestra.

© M. Koscielniak

5In fact, under these extreme conditions, being forced to sing could be life-threatening. Prisoners who did not immediately obey the order, “In step... March! Sing!” (Rozanski 1991, 26), or who did not carry out the order, “Sing, a Song!” (Glazar 1992, 41) to the complete satisfaction of the SS, provided an occasion for random beatings, as reported by Eberhard Schmidt from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp: “Anyone who did not know the song was beaten. Anyone who sang too softly was beaten. Anyone who sang too loud was beaten. The SS men lashed out wildly.” (Schmidt 1987, 130). Karl Röder, who had been a prisoner in Dachau and Flossenbürg, wrote that singing songs on command was part of the daily routine of camp life:

We sang in small groups, or one block would sing, or several thousand prisoners all at once. In the latter case, one of us had to conduct because otherwise it would not have been possible to keep time. Keeping time was very important: it had to be crisp, military, and above all loud. After several hours’ singing we were often unable to produce another note. (Röder 1985, 113)

6Forced singing took place on several occasions; while marching, while doing exercises, during roll call, and on the way to or from work. Frequently, singing was compulsory even during forced labor. It was by no means unusual for songs to provide the macabre background music for punishments, which were stage-managed as a deterrent, or even as a means of sadistic humiliation and torture. Joseph Drexel in the Mauthausen concentration camp for instance, was forced to give a rendering of the church hymn O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden [Jesus’ blood and wounds] while being flogged to the point of unconsciousness (Beyer 1980, 110–112). Punishment beatings over the notorious flogging horse (the Bock) were performed accompanied by singing, and the same is true of executions.

7The demoralizing effect of singing on command resulted not just from the situations in which the prisoners were forced to sing, but also from the deliberate choice of certain songs. While the guards and officials did not usually prescribe any particular song, the prisoners generally chose pieces which were not calculated to unnecessarily provoke the guards. German folk songs with banal, countrified or naive texts, were particularly popular with the SS and were repeated to the point of stupefaction. These songs, of course, formed a harsh contrast with the hopeless situation of the prisoners. According to Eugen Kogon, who was imprisoned in the Buchenwald camp, a degree of “stoicism and callousness” (Kogon 1988, 105) was necessary in order to endure such songs as Hoch auf dem gelben Wagen [Up there on the yellow wagon] or Auf den Bergen so hoch da droben steht ein Schloß [High on the mountains yonder stands a castle] or the sentimental ballad Hüttlein am Waldesrand [Little hut on the edge of the forest] while faced with the daily terror of life in the camps (see Röder 1985, 114; Wiechert quoted in Seidel 1983, 11). When the guards ordered the prisoners to sing such Nazi songs as the Horst-Wessel-Lied, or military or patriotic songs, this confronted the prisoners with the contrast between the National Socialist view of life and their own hopeless situation. Alternatively, the prisoners might be ordered to sing songs with double-meanings, or obscene or salacious texts, offending the prisoners’ sense of shame. Certain groups of prisoners were deliberately humiliated by being forced to sing songs of particular significance to that group; and the guards showed “an astonishing awareness of how to outrage people by breaking taboos and abusing symbols” (Daxelmüller 1994, 258). Communists and Social Democrats, for instance, were told to sing songs from the workers’ movement, while the faithful were forced to sing their religious songs.

8The guards forced prisoners to sing not just well-known songs, but also songs which originated in the camps. These so-called concentration camp songs were either newly composed or else variations on existing songs. Thus, Wir sind die Sänger von Finsterwald [We are the Darkwood Singers] became Wir sind die Sänger von Buchenwald [We are the Buchenwald – Beechwood – Singers] (Tichauer s.d., 1). Other camp songs were specifically commissioned by the SS, including the anti-Semitic Judenlied [Jews’ Song], which was composed by a prisoner in Buchenwald who had been qualified as “asocial”. The song begins:

Jahrhundert’ haben wir das Volk betrogen, / kein Schwindel war uns je zu groß und stark, / wir haben geschoben nur, gelogen und betrogen, / sei’s mit der Krone oder mit der Mark.
[For hundreds of years we cheated the people, / no swindle was too outrageous / we wangled, we lied, we cheated, we narked / whatever the currency, the crown or the mark.]
(Kogon 1988, 308)

  • 2 See Langhoff 1988, 165–186; Lammel & Hofmeyer 1962, 14–18 and illustrations; Probst-Effah 1995; Fac (...)

9Besides these songs, many concentration camps had their own special anthem which served as a sort of official signature tune for the camp. The model for all these concentration camp anthems or KZ-Hymnen was composed in the summer of 1933 in the Börgermoor concentration camp near Papenburg. This is the Börgermoorlied [Song of Börgermoor], but it is better known under the title Moorsoldatenlied, also Die Moorsoldaten or Lied der Moorsoldaten [The Peat Bog Soldiers’ Song].2 This song was not the brainchild of the SS: in fact it was repeatedly prohibited. Nevertheless it spread throughout the camp system as prisoners were transferred to other camps. In this way it became the most popular of all concentration camp songs, symbolizing for the inmates both protest and determined endurance.

  • 3 Different versions about the songwriter and the composer exist. See Glazar 1992, 118–119; Donat 197 (...)
  • 4 See Schulz 1957, 25–29; Lammel & Hofmeyer 1962, 74–77; Schneider 1973, 103–107; Seidel 1983, 12–15; (...)
  • 5 See Lammel & Hofmeyer 1962, 51-54; Naujoks 1989, 51-52; Sachsenhausenkomitee Westberlin s.d., 4-5; (...)

10The text of another concentration camp anthem, the Treblinkalied [Treblinka Song]3 is probably the work of a member of the SS, Kurt Hubert Franz, while the tune is that of the Buchenwaldlied [Buchenwald Song, lyrics: Fritz Löhner-Beda, music: Hermann Leopoldi]4 written in December 1938 on order of the camp commander. The commander in the KZ Sachsenhausen also ordered a camp anthem to be written, and this resulted in Winter 1936/37 in the Sachsenhausenlied [Sachsenhausen Song].5

Music Relayed from Radio or Gramophone

  • 6 See Lundholm 1988, 37. Generally for music in Ravensbrück see Knapp 2003.

11In some camps prescribed music was forced on the inmates in another way: music from radio or gramophones was played over permanently installed loudspeakers (Fackler 2000, 151–157, 176–180, 356–361). In 1933 this system was used in particular in the Dachau camp to re-educate the inmates – who were political opponents of the regime – using propaganda speeches and socalled national music, for exam-ple, from the German composer and antisemite Richard Wagner (Fackler 1998, 20–22). In later years, this system was used predominantly to demoralize the prisoners. The vic-tory announcements from the Ger-man radio station were designed to break the inner resistance of the inmates. Female prisoners in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, for instance, were informed of the failed attempt on Hitler’s life by a radio announcement, followed by martial march-music.6 The loudspeaker system or tannoy was mainly used, however, to issue internal camp announcements and instructions from those in charge. In Buchenwald the SS men on guard sometimes on a whim allowed the prisoners to listen in over the loud-speakers to other music broadcasts, for instance to broadcasts of philharmonic concerts on German radio station (Deutschlandsender), or else they might put on a recording of Zarah Leander (see Kogon 1988, 154; Semprún 1966, 40–41, 290; Semprún 1984, 53–54).

A copy of the The Peat Bog Soldiers made by Hanns Kralik in the KZ Börgermoor 1933. After his release Günter Daus brought this copy outside the camp

A copy of the The Peat Bog Soldiers made by Hanns Kralik in the KZ Börgermoor 1933. After his release Günter Daus brought this copy outside the camp

© Archive of Dokumentations- und Informationszentrum Emslandlager in Papenburg, Germany, estate Günter Daus.

12There are only occasional cases recorded, on the other hand, of music being played over mobile loudspeaker systems. Loudspeakers mounted on special vehicles were in use in Majdanek, an extermination camp, and from them poured unremitting dance music – fox-trot – during executions to confuse the victims of the genocide, to quieten them, and also to drown out the screams of the dying (Pawlak 1979, 137, 140; Kulisiewicz 1975, 40; Pilichowski 1980, 137, 139; Focke & Reimer 1983, 186; Hilberg 1990, 559; Schwarberg 1991, 81). Marching music was switched on in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp when people were being shot. Former SS-Medical Director Heinz Baumkötter admitted under interrogation that the purpose was “to ensure that the next prisoner did not hear the shot that killed his predecessor” (Komitee der Antifaschistischen Widerstandkämpfer in der DDR 1967, 300). When deeds like these were perpetrated, music – usually accompanied by alcohol – was deliberately used to lower inhibitions and drown out any scruples or doubts the murderers might have had about their actions.

The Official Camp Orchestras

13The most remarkable feature of command music was the existence of official camp orchestras or camp ensembles, the Lagerkapellen. Amateur and professional musicians among the prisoners formed these ensembles, which were either ordered by the camp administration or tolerated by the officials. The musicians played, first and foremost, as directed by the SS. The first of these ensembles came into existence as early as 1933 and they were present in the early concentration camps such as Oranienburg, Sonnenburg and probably also in Hohnstein (Fackler 2000, 161–163); another ensemble played at the Duerrgoy concentration camp near Breslau (ibid.; Löbe 1954, 223–224).

14In the Esterwegen concentration camp, which also had a camp choir, the camp orchestra was established in 1935 by the camp commander – a music lover (Fackler 2000, 159–161, 163–169; Schwan 1961, 599–609, 637–646). Willi Stein directed the sixteen-member musical group that rehearsed in hut number 12. The music was in the tradition of a medium-sized drawing room orchestra, playing popular classics and a higher form of light music known as Salonmusik. Among the main tasks of the ensemble was to perform concerts in the camp square for fellow prisoners, although guards were also part of the audience. However, while the apparent or ostensible purpose of these concerts was to entertain and educate the prisoners, they were, in fact, designed for a different purpose. When a delegation from the International Red Cross visited the camp in October 1935, the commander used the ensemble for propaganda: musical performances were used to make things seem better than they were and the outside world was deceived as to the real purpose of the camps. From 1936 onwards, the entire concentration camp system was re-organized: the early camps, with the exception of Dachau, were dismantled and replaced by newer, bigger ones. From that point until the outbreak of war, prisoner ensembles existed in three camps: Sachsenhausen (this orchestra was the successor of that from the Esterwegen concentration camp), Buchenwald, and Dachau (Fackler 2000, 340–356; Kulisiewicz 1977). As the concentration camp system expanded, and as a satellite system of subsidiary camps was put in place after 1942, many large camps saw the setting up of official camp ensembles: most of the main camps, some larger subsidiary or sub camps, and almost all extermination camps. In some cases there were several ensembles operating simultaneously, for instance in the complex of camps known as Auschwitz (Laks 1989; Szczepański 1990; Kallenborn s.d.; Kreuzheck 1995/1996; Fackler 2003).

15There were various motives for setting up camp orchestras. On the one hand, these musical groups could be used in various ways in the daily life of the camp. On the other hand, ambitious camp commanders emulated what they had seen in other camps, and of course the prestige and cultural status of having their “own” prisoners’ orchestra was also an incentive. From 1942 on, more and more concentration camp inmates were put to work in the war industry; and on 15 May 1943 the SS introduced a “bonus system” (Prämiensystem) to increase the work rate. The so-called “privileged” prisoners, especially prisoner functionaries, “prominents”, and those prisoner groups at the top of the hierarchy, profited from the system. And so the differences within the society of prisoners grew, while the majority of the inmates did not enjoy any improvement in camp conditions. Although these concessions did not directly concern cultural or artistic activities, it became easier to organize them (see Orth 1999, 192–198) and, as a result, many camp ensembles were officially formed.

SS-photograph showing a camp ensemble, probably in the Janowska concentration camp

SS-photograph showing a camp ensemble, probably in the Janowska concentration camp

© Renzo Vespigniani

  • 7 For Treblinka see Dahm 1994, 33–34. Besides this orchestra, there were other camp ensembles in Treb (...)
  • 8 See Knapp 1996. For Alma Rosé see Knapp 2000 and Newman & Kirtley 2000. See also the CD and 48-page (...)

16The lineup in the camp orchestras varied from a temporary trio in Treblinka with mandolin, violin and a wind instrument, to the eighty-strong long-term symphony orchestra in the main camp at Auschwitz.7 In most cases, however, they were medium-sized groups consisting predominantly of wind and string instruments. Except in the case of the women’s camp of Birkenau, which had the only female orchestra, at times conducted by Alma Rosé,8 all these groups consisted exclusively of men. The repertoire was varied, depending on the occasion, and generally included marching music, songs, camp anthems, light music, dance music, popular songs, film music, operetta melodies, but also classical music and excerpts from operas. There were also new arrangements and original compositions. Some music sheets from the Art Collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum will show the scope of the repertoire performed by the orchestra of the main camp of Auschwitz, which played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the popular song Die schönste Zeit des Lebens [The Best Time of Life], or the Arbeitslagermarsch [The Labor Camp March] composed in Auschwitz by Mieczyslaw Krzynski and Henryk Król (Szczepański 1990, 27, 49). Compared to the singing done on command, the camp orchestras offered a far broader spectrum of music, but they also demanded a much greater organizational effort. Sheet music, instruments, and other equipment had to be procured – in most cases this all came from inmates or was purchased with their money. The position of ensemble members was “privileged” compared to that of other prisoners, enabling many of them to survive. Although they indeed enjoyed certain “privileges”, ensemble members were still subject to the unpredictable whims of SS-men. Like all other prisoners they were forced to work, although assigned to the less laborious work details; other prisoners were frequently jealous of the musicians’ “privileges”, and there was fierce competition for the favor of Kapos and SS-men.

17The purposes of the camp orchestras depended largely on the quality of the musicians involved, and also on the interest of the camp administrations, as well as the type of camp. Like compulsory singing, the camp ensembles were also used to provide the rhythm which helped to keep the marching columns of prisoners in step as they left the camp, or as they returned to the camp.

  • 9 SS-photographs from the museum and archive Mauthausen in Vienna, Austria, MAM E 20/4 (1), 20/4 (2), (...)
  • 10 For Auschwitz, see SS-photographs from the archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiec (...)

18The camp orchestras also provided background music for punishments and executions. On 30 July, 1942, in the Mauthausen concentration camp, Hans Bonarewitz was recaptured after an escape attempt.9 He was preceded by the camp ensemble as he was led to his execution past his comrades who stood in ranks. The orchestras further played on ceremonial occasions. They held performances on Hitler’s birthday, for instance, and other Nazi public holidays. An ambitious camp commander with cultural pretensions might also use the orchestras to advertise the “orderly” conditions within “his” camp when it was being inspected, or when visitors were shown around. The ensembles gave concerts for the entertainment of the SS, or with their permission for the inmates, generally in connection with the “privileges” already mentioned. In the summer months open-air concerts were frequently held for the prisoners in some camps, including the main camp in Auschwitz, and also in Buchenwald, Dachau, Gusen, Mauthausen, Neuengamme, and Stutthof.10 It was by no means unusual for SS guards to indulge in some Sunday entertainment at these concerts. These offerings received a somewhat mixed response from the prisoners, though. Some were pleased at the change and gained new courage from the power of music, while others refused to take part in this compulsory exposure to culture as it was a painful reminder of better times.

19Finally, in the extermination camps, particularly Birkenau, the prisoner orchestras performed their most inhuman activity – an activity that caused some surviving musicians to experience feelings of guilt and depression for the rest of their lives. Some orchestras had to play directly in connection with the so-called selection process: this was supposed to deceive the newly-arriving prisoners into thinking that they did not face immediate death. Erika Rothschild recalls that these prisoners:

  • 11 See also Szmaglewska 1955, 93–94 and Knapp 1996, 118, 120–123.

were driven out of the cattle trucks and lined up. [...] During this process a band, made up of the best musicians from among the prisoners who were already there, played Polish, Czech, or Hungarian folk music, depending on where the new prisoners were from. [...] some were forced to march into the camp, the rest were driven into the crematorium. (Rothschild 1995, 2)11

  • 12 See Sington 1995, 139; Verslag van den Heer Louis Bannet (Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie i (...)

20Moreover, a few orchestra members had to play near the crematorium at the command of the SS, including the violinist Lili Mathé, Louis Bannet or Schmuel Gogol.12 Meanwhile it has become clear that the arrival of new transports, the selections or the walk into the gas chamber were not as a matter of principle accompanied by music, but only occasionally; it certainly happened sometimes in Birkenau that a camp orchestra would appear somewhere in the camp and play music over the new arrivals or selections (see Laks 1998, 64; Gilbert 2005, 177–178). Furthermore it is not known whether the killing process itself, that is the mass murder in the gas chambers, took place directly under the sounds of music.

Music to Entertain the Guards

  • 13 See the report of SS Thies Christophersen in the documentary film Komm und sieh. Wahrheit macht fre (...)

21As we have seen, music on command was performed mainly in the institutionalized framework of the official daily routine of the camp, but prisoners were also forced to perform on various occasions out of the ordinary run of things (see Fackler 2000, 361–368). A sufficient number of cases have shown that some brutal mass murderers were at the same time sensitive music lovers. In other cases the camp authorities, people related to the guards, and high ranking prisoner functionaries did not hesitate to use music to quite deliberately repress and subdue their victims. In choosing prisoners to serve under them, some of these people selected those with musical skills. Like other SS-men, Thies Christophersen, an SS officer (SS-Sonderführer) at Auschwitz, enjoyed what was called “Gypsy music”, and so when he was assembling his work detail he favored Gypsies, also known as the Sinti and Roma.13 In this way musicians and singers with musical gifts or with a musical training were turned into a sort of personal “musical slaves”, available at all times. They can be said to have had a dangerously dependent relationship to the SS or to prisoner functionaries: they could not with impunity refuse to comply with their desire for musical entertainment. On the other hand, their special status provided the musicians with a certain degree of protection from random brutality, and accorded them “privileges” which in some cases ensured their survival (see Posmysz 1964). But as soon as the “musical slaves” had done their duty, they lost their “safe status”.

22Often members of the camp orchestras gave private performances for the guards. According to Benedict Kautsky, this was “occasionally” the case at Buchenwald, while it was the “rule” in Auschwitz (Kautsky 1946, 222). Helena Dunicz-Niwinska reported of her experience in Birkenau: “Works by Grieg, Schumann and Mozart [were played] for the connoisseurs among the ranks of the SS” who came to “relax” after the process known as selection (Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung 1994, 145). Music lovers in the upper ranks of the camp staff were more interested in classical music, while the lower ranks maintained small ensembles comprising members of the official orchestra – or else secured the services of individual musicians – to provide light music for their drinking sessions, orgies and other feasts. Erich Frost was a prisoner in Sachsenhausen because he was a member of the Jehovah Witnesses. He was forced to play on his harmonica whenever the shout went out, “Where is Frost, the musician?” (Frost 1971, 77; see also Gebhard 1971, 182 and 173–187) Frost was then forced to play during a New Year’s Eve party in the SS casino, and also for “social” evenings held by a block leader. However, his musicianship helped not only himself, but also the entire category of prisoners to which he belonged, enhancing their esteem among the camp staff and thus improving their treatment. On these occasions, members of the SS were sometimes even known to play music together with the prisoners.

Music initiated by the prisoners

23Music on command was one thing. But musical activities resulting from the prisoners’ own initiative took on quite a different significance, whether they were performed for the musicians themselves or for their fellow prisoners (see Fackler 2000, 181–290, 303–328, 368–410, 411–429). Such musical experiences, it is true, sometimes awakened memories so painful that they resulted in depression and resignation. However, playing music like this – unlike the command music – generally evoked favorable connotations. Music gave the prisoners consolation, support and confidence; it reminded them of their earlier lives; it provided diversion and entertainment; and it helped them to articulate their feelings and to deal with the existential threat of their situation, emotionally and intellectually. Even the least conspicuous ways of making music took on a deep significance in the concentration camp. In this way singing, humming, or whistling served not only as a relaxing way of passing time, but also helped prisoners in solitary confinement, for instance, to overcome loneliness and fear.

Stages in the Development of a Self-Determined Musical Life

24Even in the early years of the concentration camps, between 1933 and 1936, prisoners had begun to make music on their own initiative: this generally involved just singing and there were very few groups of instrumentalists. The dominant style here was amateur music in the tradition of the youth movement and the workers’ movement, because in these years, mainly political opponents of the Nazis were imprisoned, and professional musicians were rare among the camp inmates. The standard and scope of musical performance did not improve significantly until the outbreak of the Second World War. At that point, more and more prisoners from many countries and social classes were deported to the camps. Among these prisoners there was a higher proportion of trained musicians, artists and intellectuals. The musical traditions of these groups increasingly enriched the musical life of the camps.

25As stated before, this musical life originated from specific traditions and circumstances. The prisoners did not form a homogeneous mass without individual differences or attitudes. Their behavior was influenced by the specific requirements of the camp’s reality on the one hand, and it was shaped by prior cultural processes and dispositions on the other. In this context, historian Falk Pingel distinguishes between the prisoners’ experiences in the concentration camps, and the skills they had learned before that time and which they brought with them into the camps (Pingel 1978, 10, 13; see also Fackler 2000, 457–462). Besides the pieces of music that originated in the camps, the prisoners mostly played songs and compositions they knew from their family, friends, school, and former music lessons.

26The rapid influx of prisoners at the outbreak of war is indirectly responsible for the considerably increased opportunity for musical events. The SS were becoming short of manpower, and to ensure the internal working of the camps they were forced to rely more and more on the assistance of prisoner functionaries to keep the camp life going. As a result, the Kapos’ influence on prison conditions grew. These prisoner functionaries, particularly those classified as criminals (Berufsverbrecher), frequently abused the powers entrusted to them and mistreated those fellow prisoners under their authority. But other Kapos, usually those classified as political prisoners, used their position to the benefit of their fellow prisoners so that a block elder (Blockältester) might permit a sing-song in the evening, or one of the prisoners’ representatives in the camp might get the SS to grant permission for a musical performance. Musical activities were at their most widespread from 1942–1943 on. During this period, prison labor was used in the arms industry. At the same time, the concentration camp system expanded with the building of satellite camps. In connection with the “bonus system” already mentioned, this brought the prisoners certain “privileges” from the SS. The concessions, of course, were designed primarily to increase the work output and to forestall disturbances – and in any case affected predominantly German inmates, prisoner functionaries, and “prominents”. However, as a result of these concessions, it became easier to procure instruments and sheet music from outside, set up a few musical groups, give concerts, and organize such other cultural events as theater or cabaret performances.

Drawing made secretly in Birkenau by François Reisz

Drawing made secretly in Birkenau by François Reisz

It shows the camp orchestra playing as work details returns to the camp; they carried out the dead on stretchers and handcarts.

© Projektgruppe Musik in Konzentrationslagern

  • 14 On Buchenwald see Muth 1984 and Fackler 1996, 53–58. On Sachsenhausen see the Report of Otto Bartel (...)

27In particular during the years 1942–1943 many camps saw the development of very different kinds of musical ensembles, some within a single group of prisoners, some with prisoners from different groups and nationalities. One of the musical formations in Buchenwald was a Jazz Big Band; in Sachsenhausen there was a mouth-organ group; in Falkensee played a “gypsy orchestra”; and a choir of Soviet prisoners of war performed in Flossenbürg.14 Let us consider Dachau to illustrate how varied the musical life of a concentration camp could be when prisoners took the initiative. One of them, Herbert Zipper, was a conductor, a composer and a music teacher. As early as in 1938, he formed an orchestra which secretly gave concerts for fellow prisoners (Cummins 1992, 85–87). In February 1941, the SS gave permission for a twenty-eight-member prisoners’ orchestra; in 1942 there was a fifty-man orchestra performing a program of classical music, as well as a special Polish orchestra; in addition there was a string quartet, a chamber music ensemble, a Czech light orchestra, together with various soloists, choirs and vocal groups (see Kulisiewicz 1982, 575–633 and Fackler 2002). Furthermore, in 1943 a theater group performed a piece accompanied by music (see Kalmar 1988, 173–187).

28In most camps, professional musicians or talented amateurs established musical groups. Some of these lasted only for a short time, others longer. Some rehearsed regularly, others only as opportunity arose. Some performed spontaneously, while others performed concerts where the artistic standard was very high. There were also performances of music composed in the camp itself. Among the factors often preventing rehearsals and performances were the poor physical condition of the prisoners, language barriers among prisoners, the danger of being discovered, personnel changes due to deportations, and the lack of instruments and sheet music. It was often necessary to organize musical events secretly, or to play from memory. These difficulties made it all the more important for professional and amateur musicians to set an example of solidarity and humane behavior in their dehumanized surroundings. This meant, of course, that there was less emphasis on aesthetic criteria: through fostering a sense of community, music served instead as a form of cultural resistance, as practical assistance in the struggle to survive.

29It is widely – but erroneously – believed that the prisoners were never allowed to play music themselves in the concentration camps. It is true that music with a political content, and other kinds of forbidden music, were not allowed. This kind of music could only be played in secret, and at the constant risk for the prisoners of being discovered and punished. According to Walter Wolf, this was the experience of a string quartet in Buchenwald concentration camp:

Jewish comrades [...] were playing passages from Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”. [...] The SS found out, and our Jewish comrades were put over the flogging horse; each got 25 strokes for the crime of playing German music as Jews. (Wolf s.d., 2)

30However, most of the musical performances organized by the prisoners were expressly permitted or at least tolerated by the SS. Other musical activities took place in a semi-legal context, in a grey-zone, like the one initiated by the Czech vocal group the “Sing-Sing-Boys”. A member of the audience who survived, described the situation thus:

  • 15 Unpublished letter from Josef Sárka to the author from 29 December 1990.

The performances [...] were to some extent legal, to some extent illegal, because songs were sung which at that time were forbidden in the Protectorate [at that time Bohemia and Moravia in Czechoslovakia were a protectorate of the German Reich]. [...] There was no applause; it would have been too dangerous. In our hearts we applauded. There were often encores, but that depended on the situation in the camp.15

31So far I have established, in general terms, the fact that prisoners managed to play music for themselves, despite the limited freedom of operation and the extreme conditions in the camps. In conclusion, I will discuss in somewhat more detail the various forms these activities typically took.

Spontaneous Music

32Most musical activities in concentration camps and extermination camps took place without much preparation: groups of friends and acquaintances struck up spontaneously. While there were occasions when instrumental music was played in this fashion, or instruments were used to accompany singing, the dominant feature here was unaccompanied unison singing in groups (see Fackler 2000, 194–208, 304, 307–321, 384–398; 2001a). In Majdanek, an extermination camp, a prisoner from the Operetta Theater in Vilna started singing arias from operas, songs from operettas, and Russian and Ukrainian songs (see Pawlak 1979, 152). This led his comrades to take up the song and accompany him softly in a chorus. Spontaneous singing like this attracted little or no attention; it could be done by anyone at any time, and required neither sheet music nor rehearsal, nor a special opportunity for a performance.

  • 16 The text from an unknown writer appeared first between 1780 and 1800 in song leaflets (Liedflugschr (...)
  • 17 The text was written in 1883 by the “revolutionary” poet Wacław Swięcicky to the 1863 melody of a P (...)
  • 18 Hirsh Glik wrote the song Zog nisht keyn mol (also Zog nit keinmol, Zog nisht keynmol az du geyst d (...)
  • 19 See Kulisiewicz 1982, 22–24; Lammel 1995; Fackler 2000, 201–202, 207–208, 318–319, 394–395; Kunze 2 (...)

33When prisoners began to sing spontaneously, they generally sang familiar songs and songs they could identify with and thus enhanced the sense of community. Other kinds of songs were heard as well – mainly folk songs from the various regions and countries the prisoners came from. Prisoners being marched to the gas chambers in Birkenau sang the Czech national anthem, or the Jewish song Hatikvah. In this way they expressed their protest, and showed that they had not been broken (see Todorov 1993, 71). The fighting words in other songs made them popular too; such songs were traditionally associated with resistance and freedom, partisans’ songs, and political songs. Among German-speaking prisoners, the song Die Gedanken sind frei [Thoughts are Free] became one of the most important.16 While Polish prisoners attached great symbolic importance to the Polish revolutionary song Warschawjanka,17 for Jewish prisoners this role was taken on by the partisans’ song Zog nisht keyn mol,18 which had been composed by Hirsh Glik in the Vilna ghetto camp. Many popular songs were secretly collected in special hand-made song-books (KZ-Liederbücher) – often tastefully decorated – to serve as memoirs, or as a gift for a prisoner functionary.19

In 1942 in Dachau, an evening of song given by the Czechoslovakian camp choir was recorded in this drawing by Vladimir Matejka

In 1942 in Dachau, an evening of song given by the Czechoslovakian camp choir was recorded in this drawing by Vladimir Matejka

The huge crowd enjoying this rare musical treat shows clearly how important it was for prisoners to be able to organize a musical performance like this.

© Deutsche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin

  • 20 Friedrich Fischer-Friesenhausen wrote the song Wo die Nordseewellen trecken an den Strand, first pr (...)

34A large number of new songs called KZ-Lieder were composed in the camps themselves (for example, The Peat Bog Soldiers), often at great risk and under very difficult conditions (see Fackler 2000, 235–290, 335–340, 394–398; Ausländer et al 2006). Most of these songs consisted of counter facts or song parodies in which a familiar melody was given a new text. The content generally attempted to deal with the reality of life in the camps, the depressing situation the prisoners found themselves in, the harsh conditions of life, or the fears and hopes of the inmates. In this sense, the popular German song Wo die Nordseewellen trecken an den Strand [Where the North Sea Waves Make to the Sandy Shore], also called simply Nord-seewellen [North Sea Waves]20 was given a new text in the North German Emsland camps, where its title became Wo das Lager steht [Where the Camp Stands] (see Lammel & Hofmeyer 1962, 20–30 and Fackler 2000, 270–271).

  • 21 On Aleksander Kulisiewicz and his collection see Fackler 2000, 480–487, 517, 525–526, 545–550 and K (...)

35The latter song was part of the repertoire of Aleksander Kulisiewicz, who recorded it on his LP Alec Kulisiewicz. Deutsche KZ-Lieder. Polnische KZ-Lieder (Die Schallplatte/Muza, 1981). Kulisiewicz was one of the so-called Lagersänger in Sachsenhausen who were known throughout the camp as songwriters and performers.21 The songs he sang for his fellow prisoners were generally camp songs, often with texts and melodies composed in the camp. One of them was his Choral aus der Tiefe der Hölle [Hymn from the Depths of Hell], in which revenge is sworn on the executioners:

  • 22 Lyrics: Leonhard Krasnodebski (1942, KZ Sachsenhausen), melody: Aleksander Kulisiewicz (1944, KZ Sa (...)

Hört unseren choral / aus der tiefe der hölle! / er soll unseren henkern / auf ewig die träume stören!
[Hear our hymn / from the depths of hell! / let it ever trouble / the dreams of our executioners!]22

36After he was liberated, Kulisiewicz collected 374 Polish songs from various camps. His unique collection of documents relating to the musical and artistic life in the camps is at present deposited in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.23 It is thought – and the nature of this collection lends weight to the suggestion – that researchers today are aware of only a fraction of all the concentration camp songs that were sung (see Fackler 2001b).

Block Performances

37In contrast to the spontaneous music, the so-called block performances (Blockveranstaltungen) generally took place in accommodation huts or barracks with a large number of participants, and they required a certain amount of organization and preparation (see Fackler 2000, 208–212, 305, 323–328, 399–405). They usually consisted of talks, short performances and vocal interludes, sometimes accompanied by instruments, and they generally took place “after hours” when the SS-men had withdrawn from the camp, leaving the prisoners largely to their own devices.

38The block performances were more for private occasions, improvised celebrations on birthdays, when a prisoner was to be released, or other days with a personal significance. In the Börgermoor concentration camp in the fall of 1933, each block held a farewell party (Barackenabschiedsfest) for any prisoner from that block who was to be released (see Langhoff 1998, 243, 263). On the evening before, the block elder held a speech, everybody sang together, and after he had been given presents, the prisoner due for release was asked to pass on messages to the outside world.

  • 24 See ‘Revolutionsfeier hinter Stacheldraht’ 1934, 5; Pingel 1978, 249 note 115; Langhoff & Schabrod (...)

39Politically motivated block performances, on the other hand, could only be held secretly. At these celebrations, a small number of the initiated would come together on important days for the labor movement such as 1 May, or the anniversary of the death of important labor leaders, but members would have to keep watch outside the room where the meeting took place. On 7 November 1933 an illegal prisoners’ committee of the Börgermoor concentration camp arranged a secret celebration to mark the sixteenth anniversary of the October Revolution before the evening roll call in all ten huts, where the workers’ song Die Internationale was sung.24

  • 25 See Philipp 1996 and 2002; Fackler 2000, 403–405, 408–409. See also Schwake 1946. Gregor Schwake re (...)

40Because block performances generally took place within specific groups of prisoners, they powerfully reflect the many cultures represented among the national, ethnic and other groups of prisoners. Among the national groups that were musically most active were the Polish and Czech prisoners (see Fackler 2000, 369, 395). Christian clergy imprisoned in Dachau also played a special role in keeping up musical activities once the camp commander had granted permission in the early 1940s to say mass or hold services. The Benedictine priest Father Gregor Schwake was a key figure in providing a musical framework for worship; to this end he composed various sacred works including a mass (Dachauer Messe) in September 1944 and an Ostertrio in March 1945 for violin, viola and cello.25 This kind of “privilege” was accorded only very rarely to members of other religious groups like Jews or Jehovah Witnesses. Nevertheless they, too, met in secret to worship, and strengthened their faith by praying together and singing sacred music.

Camp or Cultural Performances

41Finally there is a form of musical entertainment which was open to almost all the inmates of a camp. Several camps held Christmas parties or cabaret evenings, or events similar to circus performances or variety shows. They consisted of different numbers or sketches with vocal or instrumental musical interludes. These events were called camp performances (Lagerveranstaltungen), or cultural performances (Kulturveranstaltungen). All inmates were allowed to attend, which meant that the performances were international in character, with members of different groups taking part. The organizational effort made it impossible to conceal them from the SS, unlike the block performances. They generally took place with the knowledge and permission of the SS; but this in turn meant that the program and texts were subject to censorship. Those in command pursued a dual purpose in allowing events like these: on the one hand, in making these concessions they sought to forestall unrest among the inmates, while on the other hand they were providing the guards, who were often present, with entertainment and diversion from their duties.

42One of the very first of these camp performances was entitled Zirkus Konzentrazani [Concentration Circus]: it took place in the Börgermoor camp on 27 August 1933 (see Langhoff 1988, 136-155, 165-186; Albrecht 1984; Fackler 2000, 214-220, 223-224). The SS had inflicted some night-time beatings, and in response, to cheer everybody up, the inmates secured permission from the camp authorities to put on an interdisciplinary, artistic-comic show under the leadership of actor Wolfgang Langhoff. A type of circus ring was set up in Block 5: a Viennese trio (Schrammelkapelle) consisting of an accordion, a homemade violin and a Turkish crescent, opened the program and performed during the intervals. The show featured, a ringmaster, a wrestler, acrobats, boxing, clowns, prisoners dressed up as women, and a barbershop quartet. The grand finale consisted of the première of the Börgermoorlied, and the audience of prisoners enthusiastically responded when they were invited to join in. This circus performance was humorous and sometimes irreverent: it portrayed the cares and afflictions of the prisoners, and it directed criticism and irony at the conditions in the camp, while indirectly satirizing the primitive nature of the guards who were present (see Fackler 2000, 217–219).

43Other concentration camps also had camp performances: there were lecture evenings in Börgermoor, evenings of song in Sachsenburg and Lichtenburg, and variety shows in Dachau (see Fackler 2000, 213–235, 305, 405–410). During the war years, camp performances were held fairly regularly, especially in “old” concentration camps with relatively well-established structures and hierarchies. Here for instance, secret resistance committees were established or respected political prisoners took on informal leadership roles within the camp such as camp elder (Lagerältester) or camp scribe (Lagerschreiber). There is evidence that performances like these took place in eastern European camps as well, where conditions were “considerably worse” (Schwarz 1995, 38) than those in the western camps. As evident from a program from the Stutthof concentration camp, female prisoners held an afternoon entertainment on 16 January 1944 (Fackler 2000, 31).

  • 26 Interview of Franz Brückl [formerly Przybylsky] by the author on 23 May 1995.
  • 27 See Kalmar 1988, 77; interview of Hans Gasparitsch by the author on 10 October 1995.
  • 28 Report nr. 28 “Kunst im K.L. Bu” of the Collection Otto Halle, Archive of the Gedenkstätte Buchenwa (...)
  • 29 Published in Muth 1984, 11. See also the interview of Miroslav Broft by the author on 8 and 12 May (...)

44In Dachau, during the final years of the war, so-called “concerts” were put on in the bath house almost every weekend, sometimes both on Saturday and Sundady afternoon and with official permission.26 In addition to a large string orchestra, the performers included chamber music groups, choirs, and soloists.27 The equivalent performances in Buchenwald were very different, consisting more of variety shows (see Schneider 1973, 71-78; Internationale Buchenwald-Komitee s.d., 459-461; Seidel 1983; Staar 1987). These performances were put on in a hut that had been turned into a cinema. Between 1 August 1943 and 31 December 1944, a total of twenty-seven “concerts” took place at this venue: they were permitted, or at least tolerated, by the camp authorities. An announcer provided continuity throughout the show, which consisted of musical performances, but also sketches, gymnastic and artistic displays, as well as cabaret and theater. The program was put together by a “committee with representatives from all the nations with numerically strong contingents in the camp”.28 On all these occasions, the jazz Big Band “Rhythmus” played, and the trombone part for Glenn Miller’s In The Mood – under the Nazis a so-called piece of “degenerate Music” – has been preserved.29 Performances like these became an occasion to compose new pieces; and at Christmas and New Year 1943–1944 an opera was performed in the pathology rooms, entitled Buchhäuser oder Läusekrieg auf der

  • 30 Reports of Wacław Czarnecki, Zygmunt Zonik and the Internationales Lagerkomitee quoted from Staar 1 (...)

45Waldburg [The Denizens of Buchenwald House, or the Lice War of Waldburg].30 It told the story of the prisoners’ battle against lice, with the lice symbolizing the SS. Large-scale performances like the latter, often reaching hundreds of prisoners, were intended to counter a demoralizing tendency among the prisoners. Harry Naujoks, camp elder in Sachsenhausen, explains:

The main point in our performances was to prevent the people from sinking into resignation, to give them new courage, to enable them to switch off for a few hours. This was vital, because hopelessness was one of the greatest dangers in the camp. When an individual was affected, it could lead to suicide, when whole groups were affected it could lead to disorganization and behavior that could bring down serious trouble with the SS. (Naujoks 1989, 297)

46Although all camp inmates who were free to move about the camp could attend camp performances, many, particularly in the final phase of the concentration camp system, were physically so weakened that they did not have the strength to take part: intellectual or artistic participation was beyond them because hunger dominated all. We have already seen that the camp administration introduced concessions, but even then there was no general permission for musical performances initiated by the prisoners, and these activities were repeatedly curtailed or for a time forbidden. Besides, there was a strictly regulated daily routine, with roll calls, maintenance duties, exercises, and work duty, leaving little time for breaks or independent activities. The only times when it was possible to play music were, generally speaking, the periods known as “leisure time”. These periods encompassed just a few hours, for instance on Saturday afternoons or on Sundays, when there was generally no work, or after the evening roll call. These few hours of “leisure time” were desperately needed for physical recuperation, and they were often interrupted by guards conducting searches or inspections. Time was short, and daily life in the camps was characterized by fear and uncertainty. These circumstances, together with the extreme conditions in the camps, discouraged artistic activity. Engaging in music depended not least on the camp staff and the prisoner functionaries taking a favorable attitude. These various factors meant that independent musical activities invariably formed a high point in camp life, and they often remained the prerogative of those categories of prisoners high within the prisoner hierarchy, or those prisoners belonging to a “privileged” group. The bulk of the prisoners had to struggle to survive and had neither the strength nor the time to take part in musical activities, which were in any case relatively rare occurrences. During the last few months of the war, conditions in the camps deteriorated further as the military situation worsened. When the death marches started, musical performances generally ceased.

Conclusions

47The preceding examples – and the list could easily be extended – demonstrate effectively that music played an integral part in the daily life of the Nazi concentration camps. Life in these camps was full of contradictions and gave rise to specific forms of behaviour, rituals, normative and value systems which even today remain largely unstudied. By analyzing daily life in the camps from a cultural-historical perspective – taking musical activities as an example –, we get a picture that possibly disrupts our conventional understanding of culture. We see deep into the multilayered interior of the Nazi concentration camp as an institution of terror, inhumanity and destruction. But in these places, professional and amateur musicians of different ages, genders and nationalities, played music on a regular basis. They did so on command, and on their own initiative, not infrequently on peril of their lives; they performed solo, in choirs, in chamber music groupings, in small ensembles, in jazz bands, in camp orchestras and in symphony orchestras. They played and even composed music of various kinds, from light music to classical music, from traditional folk songs to critical cabaret songs, from jazz tunes that were beyond the pale to bright and cheerful operetta melodies.

48It is true that the guards, for their own evil ends, abused the prisoners who played music, and by forcing them to put on musical performances, they deliberately promoted the “process of breaking the will, and degrading [the prisoners] as human beings” (Kogon 1988, 99). Nevertheless, the fact that music was performed in the camps forces us to realize that the prisoners should not be regarded as an undifferentiated “grey mass”. We must instead attempt to grasp the concept of “the prisoner as a cultural being” (Daxelmüller 1998, 993) confronted with the necessity of devising new cultural techniques and survival strategies under the conditions prevalent in the camps. It would therefore be wrong to underestimate the effect of playing music on your own initiative as a method of coping practically, and surviving culturally. The values and aesthetics inherent in music were a defense against the terror of the camps. However, it would be quite inappropriate to suggest that concentration camp prisoners played music and indulged in other artistic activities to support some kind of post hoc argument that the concentration camp system was not all that bad. We must always bear in mind that whatever music was produced in the Nazi camps, it was done so in spite of constant hunger, mental and physical violence, impending disease and pestilence, an uncertain future, and random acts of terror. The prisoners’ lives were always in jeopardy. It is also important to remember that it was only a very small segment of prisoners who had the chance to engage with music at all, for the simple reason that their physical decline was not yet so far advanced that hunger dominated their thoughts and actions.

Haut de page

Bibliographie

Albrecht, Richard, ‘“Zirkus Konzentrazani”: eine Modellanalyse’, Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie 9(1/2), 1984, 183–190.

Ausländer, Fietje, Susanne Brandt & Guido Fackler, Das Lied der Moorsoldaten 1933 bis 2000. Bearbeitungen – Nutzungen – Nachwirkungen, Dokumentations- und Informationszentrum Emslandlager in collaboration with Stiftung Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, Papenburg, 2002, http://www.diz-emslandlager.de/cd02.htm (accessed 4 January 2017).

Ausländer, Fietje, Susanne Brandt & Guido Fackler, O Bittre Zeit. Lagerlieder 1933 bis 1945, Dokumentations- und Informationszentrum Emslandlager in collaboration with the music archive of the Berlin Akademie der Künste and Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, Papenburg, 2006.

Bartels, Otto, ‘Report’, Archive of Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen, R 41/4/3, s.d.

Beyer, Wilhelm R. (ed.), Rückkehr unerwünscht: Joseph Drexels “Reise nach Mauthausen” und der Widerstandskreis Ernst Niekisch, München: DTV Dokumente, 1980.

Cummins, Paul F., Dachau Song. The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper, New York: Peter Lang, 1992.

Dachs, Robert, Sag beim Abschied..., Vienna: Verlag der Apfel, 1994.

Dahm, Annkatrin, Musik in den nationalsozialistischen Vernichtungslagern in Polen, unpublished master’s thesis at the University of Freiburg, 1994.

Das Lagerliederbuch. Lieder, gesungen, gesammelt und geschrieben im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen bei Berlin 1942, Dortmund: Pläne, 1983.

Daxelmüller, Christoph, ‘Kultur gegen Gewalt. Das Beispiel Konzentrationslager’, in Rolf Wilhelm Brednich & Walter Hartinger (eds.), Gewalt in der Kultur. Vorträge des 29. Deutschen Volkskundekongresses Passau 1993, vol. 1, Passau: Lehrstuhl für Volkskunde der Universität Passau, 1994, 223-269.

Daxelmüller, Christoph, ‘Kulturelle Formen und Aktivitäten als Teil der Überlebens- und Vernichtungsstrategie in den Konzentrationslagern’, in Christoph Dieckmann, Ulrich Herbert & Karin Orth (eds.), Die nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Entwicklung und Struktur, vol. 2, Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 1998, 983-1005.

de Martini, Emil, Vier Millionen Tote klagen an...! Erlebnisse im Todeslager Auschwitz, München-Obermenzing: H. von Weber, 1948.

Denscher, Barbara & Helmut Peschina, Kein Land des Lächelns – Fritz Löhner-Beda 1883–1942, Vienna, Salzburg & Frankfurt am Main: Residenz, 2002.

Donat, Alexander (ed.), The Death Camp Treblinka. A Documentary, New York: Holocaust Library, 1979.

Dworzecki, M., Hirsch Glik. The Author of the Jewish Partisan Hymn, Paris, 1966.

Fackler, Guido, ‘Jazz im KZ. Ein Forschungsbericht’, in Wolfram Knauer (ed.), Jazz in Deutschland. Eine Veröffentlichung des Jazz-Instituts Darmstadt, Hofheim: Wolke, 1996, 49-91.

Fackler, Guido, ‘“... den Gefangenen die nationalen Flötentöne beibringen.” Musikbeschallung im frühen KZ Dachau’, Zeitenweise. Geschichtsmagazin für München 2, 1998, 20-22.

Fackler, Guido, “Des Lagers Stimme”: Musik im KZ. Alltag und Häftlingskultur in den Konzentrationslagern 1933 bis 1936, Bremen: Temmen, 2000.

Fackler, Guido, ‘Lied und Gesang im KZ’, Lied und populäre Kultur/ Song and Popular Culture. Jahrbuch des deutschen Volksliedsarchivs 46, 2001a, 139-196.

Fackler, Guido, ‘Zur besonderen Quellensituation bei der Erforschung von Musik im NS-Lagersystem’, mr-Mitteilungen 39/40, 2001b, 8-24, 15-29.

Fackler, Guido, ‘Musik im KZ Dachau’, in Josef Focht & Ursula K. Nauderer (eds.), Musik in Dachau, Dachau: Zweckverband Dachauer Galerien und Museen, 2002, 179-192.

Fackler, Guido, ‘“We all feel this music is infernal...”: music on command in Auschwitz’, in David Mickenberg, Corinne Granoff & Peter Hayes (eds.), The Last Expression. Art and Auschwitz, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2003, 114–125.

Fackler, Guido, ‘“Machts ein eigenes Lagerlied…” – Liedwettbewerbe im KZ’, in Dietrich Helms & Thomas Phleps (eds.), Keiner wird gewinnen. Populäre Musik im Wettbewerb, Bielefeld: Transcript, 2005, 57–81.

Fackler, Guido, ‘Panoramen von Macht und Ohnmacht. KZ-Bilder als ikoniserte Erinnerung und historisches Dokument’, in Helge Gerndt & Michaela Haibl (eds.), Der Bilderalltag. Perspektiven einer volkskundlichen Bildwissenschaft, München: Waxmann Verlag, 2005, 251-274.

Fackler, Guido (ed.), Aleksander Kulisiewicz: Musik aus der Hölle, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2007.

Fénelon, Fania, Playing for Time: The Musicians of Auschwitz, translated from the French by Judith Landry, New York: Atheneum, 1977.

Focke, Harald & Uwe Reimer, Alltag unterm Hakenkreuz, vol. 2: Alltag der Entrechteten. Wie die Nazis mit ihren Gegnern umgingen, Reinbek: Rowohlt Verlag, 1983.

Frost, Erich, ‘Report from March 1971’, Historical archive of the Wachtturm-Gesellschaft in Selters, 1971.

Gebhard, Manfred (ed.), Die Zeugen Jehovas. Eine Dokumentation über die Wachtturmgesellschaft, Schwerte: Verlag Hubert Freistühler, 1971.

Gilbert, Shirli, ‘Songs Contest the Past: Music in KZ Sachsenhausen’, Contemporary European History 13(3), 2004, 281-304.

Gilbert, Shirli, Music in the Holocaust: Confronting Life in the Nazi Ghettos and Camps, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Glazar, Richard, Die Falle mit dem grünen Zaun. Überleben in Treblinka, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1992.

Habenich, Gottfried, Leid im Lied. Südost- und ostdeutsche Lagerlieder und Lieder von Flucht, Vertreibung und Verschleppung, preface by Gustav Wabro, Freiburg: Johannes-Künzig-Institut für ostdeutsche Volkskunde, 1996.

Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung (ed.), Die Auschwitz-Hefte. Texte der polnischen Zeitschrift “Przegld Lekarski” über historische, psychische und medizinische Aspekte des Lebens und Sterbens in Auschwitz, Hamburg, 1994.

Hilberg, Raul, Die Vernichtung der europäischen Juden. Die Gesamtgeschichte des Holocaust, translated from the English by Christian Seeger, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1990.

Internationale Buchenwald-Komitee of the Antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer in the Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (ed.), Buchenwald. Mahnung und Verpflichtung. Dokumente und Berichte, Berlin: Kongress Verlag, s.d., 459-461.

Kallenborn, Thomas, Die Orchester in Auschwitz während des Nationalsozialismus, unpublished master’s thesis at the University of Saarbrücken, s.d.

Kalmar, Rudolf, Zeit ohne Gnade [1946], Vienna, 1988.

Katz, Josef, Erinnerungen eines Überlebenden, Kiel: Neuer Malik Verlag, 1988.

Kautsky, Benedikt, Teufel und Verdammte. Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse aus sieben Jahren in deutschen Konzentrationslagern, Zürich: Büchergilde Gutenberg, 1946.

Klein, Katja, Kazett-Lyrik. Untersuchungen zu Gedichten und Liedern aus dem Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen, Würzburg: Königshausen u. Neumann, 1995.

Knapp, Gabriele, Das Frauenorchester in Auschwitz. Musikalische Zwangsarbeit und ihre Bewältigung, Hamburg: von Bockel, 1996.

Knapp, Gabriele, ‘Alma Rosé: Geigerin, Dirigentin’, in Arbeitsgruppe Exilmusik (ed.), Lebenswege von verfolgten Musikerinnen im Dritten Reich und im Exil, Hamburg, 2000.

Knapp, Gabriele, Frauenstimmen. Musikerinnen erinnern an Ravensbrück, Berlin: Metropol-Verlag, 2003.

Kogon, Eugen, Der SS-Staat: Das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager, München: Heyne Verlag, 1988.

Komitee der Antifaschistischen Widerstandkämpfer in der DDR (ed.), SS im Einsatz. Eine Dokumentation über die Verbrechen der SS, Berlin: Kongres-Verlag, 1967.

Kon, Henech (ed.), Songs of the Ghetto, vol. 2., New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, 1972.

Kreuzheck, Hans-Ludger, ‘Kapellen der Hölle. Die offiziellen Lagerkapellen in Auschwitz und anderen Konzentrationslagern’, Informationsblatt 17/18/19, 1995/96, 33-44, 28-43, 3-23.

Kuhn, Hermann (ed.), Stutthof. Ein Konzentrationslager vor den Toren Danzigs, translated by Leon Lendzion, Bremen: Edition Temmen, 1995.

Kulisiewicz, Aleksander, ‘Dalsze Przyczynki Do Zagadnień Muzyki I Pieśni W Zakresie Samoobrony Psychicznej Wieźniów W Obozach Hitlerowskich’ [Some Remarks about the Psychopathy of Music and Songs in Nazi Camps], Przegld Lekarski 32(1), 1975, 33-40.

Kulisiewicz, Aleksander, ‘Orkiestry w obozach koncentracyjnych’ [The Orchestras in Concentration Camps], Życie Muzyczne 4, 1977, 3-8.

Kulisiewicz, Aleksander, Polskie pieśni obozowe 1939-1945 [Polish Concentration Camp Songs 1939–1945], unpublished manuscript at the private archive of Krzysztof Kulisiewicz in Cracow, Poland, 1982.

Kuna, Milan, Musik an der Grenze des Lebens. Musikerinnen und Musiker aus böhmischen Ländern in nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern und Gefängnissen, translated by Eliska Nováková, Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins, 1993.

Kunze, Juliane, Gesang als Überlebensstrategie im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen, unpublished master’s thesis at the University of Berlin, 2001.

Laks, Szymon, Music of Another World, Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern UP, 1998.

Laks, Szymon, Musik in Auschwitz, translated from the Polish by Mirka and Karlheinz Machel, ed. and epilogue by Andreas Knapp, Düsseldorf: Droste, 1998.

Langhoff, Wolfgang & Karl Schabrod, ‘Wir sind die Moorsoldaten’, in Erasmus Schöfer (ed.), Der rote Großvater erzählt. Berichte und Erzählungen von Veteranen der Arbeiterbewegung aus der Zeit von 1914-1945, in collaboration with Düsseldorfer Werkstatt des Werkkreises and Werkkreis-Lektorat, Berlin: Express Edition, 1983, 138‑163.

Langhoff, Wolfgang & Karl Schabrod, Die Moorsoldaten [1935], Cologne, 1988.

Lammel, Inge, Das Arbeiterlied, Frankfurt am Main: Röderberg-Verlag, 1973.

Lammel, Inge, ‘Das Sachsenhausen-Liederbuch’, in Günter Morsch (ed.), Sachsenhausen-Liederbuch. Originalwiedergabe eines illegalen Häftlingsliederbuches aus dem Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen, Berlin: Hentrich, 1995, 14‑31.

Lammel, Inge & Günter Hofmeyer (eds.), Lieder aus den faschistischen Konzentrationslagern, Leipzig: VEB Hofmeister, 1962.

Linde, Carsten (ed.), KZ-Lieder. Eine Auswahl aus dem Repertoire des polnischen Sängers Alex Kulisiewicz, Sievershütten: Wendepunkt, 1972.

Löbe, Paul, Der Weg war lang. Lebenserinnerungen von Paul Löbe. Ehemals Präsident des Deutschen Reichstages und Alterspräsident des 1. Deutschen Bundestages, Berlin: Arani-Verlags, 1954.

Lundholm, Anja, Das Höllentor. Bericht einer Überlebenden, Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1988.

Martini, Joachim & Beate Schneppen-Rauer, Musik in Auschwitz, exhibition in Frankfurt am Main, 1988.

Mayzel, Nachman, Hirsh Glik. Lider un Poemes, New York, 1953.

Mellacher, Karl, Das Lied im österreichischen Widerstand. Funktionsanalyse eines nichtkommerziellen literarischen Systems, Vienna: Europa Verlag, 1986.

Mszyca, Wojciech, ‘“Warszawianka” za drutami’ [“Warschawjanka” Behind the Wire], Archive of the KZ- Gedenkstätte Dachau, File “Musik, verschiedene Lieder”, s.d.

Müller, Charlotte, Die Klempnerkolonne in Ravensbrück. Erinnerungen des Häftlings Nr. 10.787, Frankfurt am Main: Röderberg-Verlag, 1981.

Muth, Wolfgang, ‘“Rhythmus” – Ein internationales Jazzorchester in Buchenwald’, in AG Jazz Eisenach (ed.), 25 Jahre AG Jazz im Klubhaus AWE, Eisenach, 1984, 10–15.

Naujoks, Harry, Mein Leben im KZ Sachsenhausen 1936-1942. Erinnerungen des ehemaligen Lagerältesten, edited by Martha Naujoks and Sachsenhausen-Komitee for the BRD, Berlin, 1989.

Newman, Richard & Karen Kirtley, Alma Rosé. Vienna to Auschwitz, Portland: Amadeus Press, 2000.

Orth, Karin, Das System der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Eine politische Organisationsgeschichte, Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1999.

Pakullis, Heinrich, ‘Von Börgermoor bis Neuengamme. Zwölf Jahre deutsches Konzentrationslager’, Archive of the KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme in Hamburg-Neuengamme, NG 2.8., s.d.

Pawlak, Zacheusz, “Ich habe überlebt ...”. Ein Häftling berichtet über Majdanek, foreword by Gerhard Mauz, Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe Verlag, 1979.

Philipp, Eleonore, ‘Priesterkomponisten im KZ Dachau. Musikalisches Wirken 1941-1945’, Amperland. Heimatkundliche Vierteljahresschrift für die Kreise Dachau, Freising und Fürstenfeldbruck 32(1), 1996, 242-248.

Philipp, Eleonore, ‘Geistliche Musiker im Konzentrationslager Dachau’, in Josef Focht & Ursula K. Nauderer (eds.), Musik in Dachau, Dachau: Zweckverband Dachauer Galerien und Museen, 2002, 193-203.

Pilichowski, Czesław, Es gibt keine Verjährung, Warsaw: Interpress, 1980.

Pingel, Falk, Häftlinge unter SS-Herrschaft. Widerstand, Selbstbehauptung und Vernichtung in Konzentrationslagern, Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1978.

Posmysz, Zofia, ‘Die “Sängerin”’, Hefte von Auschwitz 8, 1964, 15–32.

Probst-Effah, Gisela, ‘Das Moorsoldatenlied’, Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung 40, 1995, 75-83.

‘Revolutionsfeier hinter Stacheldraht. Wie wir den 16. Jahrestag der Oktober-Revolution im Konzentrationslager Börgermoor feierten’, Gegenangriff 45, 1934.

Rieckert, Fred, ‘Erlebnisbericht aus den Konzentrationslagern Heuberg und Kuhberg’, Archive of the Dokumentationszentrum Oberer Kuhberg in Ulm a.d. Donau, 1945.

Röder, Karl, Nachtwache. 10 Jahre KZ Dachau und Flossenbürg, Vienna, Cologne & Graz: Böhiau, 1985.

Rothschild, Erika, ‘Eine Erinnerung. Ein Gespräch mit Erika Rothschild, die Auschwitz überlebt hat’, Badische Zeitung 21/22, 1995, 2.

Rozanski, Zenon, Mützen ab... Eine Reportage aus der Strafkompanie des KZ Auschwitz, Oldenburg University, 1991.

Sachsenhausenkomitee Westberlin (ed.), ... denn in uns zieht die Hoffnung mit. Lieder, gesungen im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen. Wolfgang Szepansky Häftlings-Nr. 33.527. Emil Ackermann Häftlings-Nr. 775, Berlin, s.d.

Schätzle, Julius, Stationen zur Hölle. Konzentrationslager in Baden und Württemberg 1933-1945, Frankfurt am Main: Röderberg-Verlag, 1974.

Schmidt, Eberhard, Ein Lied – ein Atemzug. Erinnerungen und Dokumente, re-edited by Manfred Machlitt, Berlin, 1987.

Schneider, Wolfgang, Kunst hinter Stacheldraht. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des antifaschistischen Widerstandskampfes, Nationale Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, 1973.

Schulz, Ilse, Kunst und Literatur als Waffe im Kampf gegen den Faschismus im Konzentrationslager Buchenwald, unpublished Staatsexamensarbeit at the University of Leipzig, 1957.

Schwake, Gregor, ‘Kirchenmusik im Konzentrationslager Dachau’, Der Chorwächter. Zeitschrift für Kirchenmusik. Organ der Schweizerischen Cäcilienvereine 71, 1946, 9-12.

Schwan, Valentin, Bis auf weiteres, Darmstadt: Progess Johann Fladung, 1961.

Schwarberg, Günther, Der Juwelier von Majdanek, Göttingen: Steidl, 1991.

Schwarberg, Günther, Dein ist mein ganzes Herz. Die Geschichte von Fritz Löhner-Beda, der die schönsten Lieder der Welt schrieb, und warum Hitler ihn ermorden ließ, Göttingen: Steidl, 2000.

Schwarz, Gudrun, ‘Frauen in Konzentrationslagern’, in Vergangen ist weder ein Tag, noch sind es die Nächte. Frauen in Konzentrationslagern, seminar from 25 to 28 May in Tutzing organized by Evangelische Akademie, Tutzing and Topographie of Terror, Berlin, 1995, 24–41.

Schwarz, Gudrun, Die nationalsozialistischen Lager, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlage, 1996.

Semprún, Jorge, Die große Reise, translated from the French by Abelle Christaller, Berlin: Volk und Welt, 1966.

Semprún, Jorge, Was für ein schöner Sonntag!, translated from the French by Johann Piron, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1984.

Seidel, Sonja, Kultur und Kunst im antifaschistischen Widerstandskampf im Konzentrationslager Buchenwald, Weimar-Buchenwald: NMG Buchenwald, 1983.

Sington, Derrick, Die Tore öffnen sich. Authentischer Bericht über das englische Hilfswerk für Belsen mit amtlichen Photos und einem Rückblick von Rudolf Küstermeier, Münster, 1995.

Sondergeld, Klaus, ‘Rückkehr nach 45 Jahren. “Ein großes Kind.” Eine Auszeichnung für den Musiker Schmuel Gogol’, Die Zeit, 13 July 1990.

Staar, Sonja, Kunst, Widerstand und Lagerkultur. Eine Dokumentation, Nationale Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, 1987.

Staar, Sonja,’”Es war dies alles eine schauderhafte Symphonie...”: Die Häftlingskapelle im Konzentrationslager Buchenwald. Ein Streichquartett im Block 22’, Zeitschrift der Jura Soyfer Gesellschaft 4(4), 1995, 14-21.

Szczepański, Ignacy, Häftlingskapelle, Warsaw, 1990.

Szeintuch, Yehiel, ‘Glik, Hirsh’, in Israel Gutman, Eberhard Jäckel, Peter Longerich & Julius H. Schoeps (eds.), Enzyklopädie des Holocaust. Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden, vol. 1, Berlin: Argon Verlag, 1993, 544-545.

Szmaglewska, Seweryna, ‘Rauch über Birkenau (Ausschnitt)’, in Adolf Rudnicki (ed.), Ewiges Gedenken, Warsaw, 1955, 85–104.

Tichauer, Wilhelm, ‘Lieder beim Appell zu singen’, Archive of Buchenwald Memorial in Weimar, Germany, BwA 9-98-8, s.d.

Todorov, Tzvetan, Angesichts des Äußersten, translated from the French by Wolfgang Heuer and Andreas Knop, München: Wilhelm Fink, 1993.

van Dick, Lutz, Der Partisan. Das kurze Leben von Hirsch Glik, afterword by Esther Bejarano, Reinbek, 1993.

Vermehren, Isa, Reise durch den letzten Akt. Ravensbrück, Buchenwald, Dachau: Eine Frau berichtet, Reinbek: Rowohlt Verlag, 1998.

Walleitner, Hugo, Zebra. Ein Tatsachenbericht aus dem Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg, Bad Ischl, 1946.

Weinmann, Martin (ed.), Das nationalsozialistische Lagersystem (CCP), Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins, 1990.

Willenberg, Samuel, Revolt in Treblinka, Warsaw: Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, 1984.

Wlazłowski, Zbigniew, Przez kamieniołomy i kolczasty drut [Through Stone Quarries and Barbed Wire], Cracow, 1974.

Wolf, Walter, ‘Musik im Konzentrationslager Buchenwald’, Archive of the Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, BwA 9-98-15, s.d.

Haut de page

Notes

1 See Playing for Time: The Musicians of Auschwitz (Fénelon 1977). Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay for the film (Columbia Broadcasting System/CBS 1980) with Vanessa Redgrave as Alma Rosé, directed by Daniel Monn.

2 See Langhoff 1988, 165–186; Lammel & Hofmeyer 1962, 14–18 and illustrations; Probst-Effah 1995; Fackler 2000, 245–265. See also the double CD with different recordings of The Peat Bog Soldiers from 1937 until 1999 and booklet with 64 pages (Ausländer, Brandt & Fackler 2002).

3 Different versions about the songwriter and the composer exist. See Glazar 1992, 118–119; Donat 1979, 306; Willenberg 1984, 113.

4 See Schulz 1957, 25–29; Lammel & Hofmeyer 1962, 74–77; Schneider 1973, 103–107; Seidel 1983, 12–15; Staar 1987, 14-18; Mellacher 1986, 112-115; Kogon 1988, 106-108; Kuna 1993, 63–66; Dachs 1994; Fackler 2000, 338-339; Schwarberg 2000; Denscher & Peschina 2002.

5 See Lammel & Hofmeyer 1962, 51-54; Naujoks 1989, 51-52; Sachsenhausenkomitee Westberlin s.d., 4-5; Klein 1995, 13–15; Fackler 2000, 336-338; Kunze 2001, 57-58; Fackler 2005.

6 See Lundholm 1988, 37. Generally for music in Ravensbrück see Knapp 2003.

7 For Treblinka see Dahm 1994, 33–34. Besides this orchestra, there were other camp ensembles in Treblinka later, for example a ten-member-band conducted by Arthur Gold. See Glazar 1992, 118–119.

8 See Knapp 1996. For Alma Rosé see Knapp 2000 and Newman & Kirtley 2000. See also the CD and 48-page booklet: Wolfgang Wendel, Meister des Bogens. Váaa Príhoda - Alma Rosé - Arnold Rosé. Dokumentation eines Jahrhundert-Dramas (Karlsruhe, 1999, POL-1007-2). For further literature, reports and documentary films see Fackler 2000, 503–504, 511, 545–550, 563.

9 SS-photographs from the museum and archive Mauthausen in Vienna, Austria, MAM E 20/4 (1), 20/4 (2), 20/7 (1), 20/7 (3) and report MAM E/20/16). See Fackler 2005.

10 For Auschwitz, see SS-photographs from the archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, Poland, no. neg. fot. 337 and 338; Laks 1998, 64; de Martini 1948, 36; Martini & Schneppen-Rauer 1988, 9, 11, 14. For Buchenwald see Kuna 1993, 55 and Staar 1995. On Dachau see Kalmar 1988, 77. On Gusen see Wlazłowski 1974. On Mauthausen see the interview of Hans Maraálek by the author on 4 April 1994. On Neuengamme see the interview of Herbert Schemmel by the author on 3 November 1994. On Stutthof see the report of Theodor Traugott Meyer from 13 August 1947, published in Kuhn 1995, 189.

11 See also Szmaglewska 1955, 93–94 and Knapp 1996, 118, 120–123.

12 See Sington 1995, 139; Verslag van den Heer Louis Bannet (Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, OGC), 1; Sondergeld 1990.

13 See the report of SS Thies Christophersen in the documentary film Komm und sieh. Wahrheit macht frei - Rechtsradikale in Deutschland (Germany/Sweden, 1992).

14 On Buchenwald see Muth 1984 and Fackler 1996, 53–58. On Sachsenhausen see the Report of Otto Bartels (s.d., 2). On Falkensee see Kulisiewicz 1982, 799. On Flossenbürg see Walleitner 1946, 87.

15 Unpublished letter from Josef Sárka to the author from 29 December 1990.

16 The text from an unknown writer appeared first between 1780 and 1800 in song leaflets (Liedflugschriften) while the melody is verifiable since 1810. Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano published the song as Zwiegesang zwischen einem Gefangenen und seinem Mädchen [Duet between a Prisoner and his Girl] in their famous song collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1806/1808). Thereafter, the song was continually censored. On the use of this song in the concentration camps Heuberg, Gotteszell, Ravensbrück or Sachsenhausen see Rieckert 1945, 25; Schätzle 1974, 26; Müller 1981, 192; Vermehren 1998, 147; Schmidt 1987, 127.

17 The text was written in 1883 by the “revolutionary” poet Wacław Swięcicky to the 1863 melody of a Polish song of freedom. See Lammel 1973, 109–110, 224; Mszyca’s s.d.

18 Hirsh Glik wrote the song Zog nisht keyn mol (also Zog nit keinmol, Zog nisht keynmol az du geyst dem letsten verg, Sog nischt kejnmol or Zog nit keyn mol), which became a partisan hymn after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 19 April 1943. The music is adapted from a melody of the Russian composer Dmitry Pokrass. Hirsh Glik was deported from the Vilna ghetto to a camp in Estonia where he died in 1944. See Kon 1972, 1; Mayzel 1953; Dworzecki 1966; van Dick 1993; Szeintuch 1993. On the use of this song in concentration camps see Katz 1988, 140 (text partially remembered wrong).

19 See Kulisiewicz 1982, 22–24; Lammel 1995; Fackler 2000, 201–202, 207–208, 318–319, 394–395; Kunze 2001; Gilbert 2004, 285–286. The following song books from Sachsenhausen are published as reprints: Das Lagerliederbuch (1983) and Sachsenhausen-Liederbuch (Morsch 1995).

20 Friedrich Fischer-Friesenhausen wrote the song Wo die Nordseewellen trecken an den Strand, first printed in 1922. It was based on a reworking – like other pastoral versions – of Wo die Ostseewellen trecken an den Strand, of the Pommernlied that was originally composed in 1907/08 by Martha Müller-Grählert and set to music by Simon Krannig between 1908 and 1910. Wo die Nordseewellen trecken an den Strand was gladly sung by German prisoners in the concentration camps. See for example Das Lagerliederbuch 1983, 132. It also served as the basis for other camp songs thats stemmed from the Soviet Union or in Eastern European camps established for Germans after the end of World War Two. See the song collection A 195.375 from the Deutsches Volksliedarchiv in Freiburg i.Br. and Habenich, 1996, 436–438.

21 On Aleksander Kulisiewicz and his collection see Fackler 2000, 480–487, 517, 525–526, 545–550 and Kulisiewicz 1982, 24–28. The essays of Aleksander Kulisiewicz about music and songs in concentration camps have been published in German translation by Fackler (2007). Generally on songs and music in Sachsenhausen see Gilbert 2004 and 2005, 99–143.

22 Lyrics: Leonhard Krasnodebski (1942, KZ Sachsenhausen), melody: Aleksander Kulisiewicz (1944, KZ Sachsenhausen). See Linde 1972, 13.

23 Visit https://www.ushmm.org/research/research-in-collections/collections-highlights/music-of-the-holocaust-highlights-from-the-collection/music-of-the-holocaust/aleksander-kulisiewicz for Kulisiewicz and https://www.ushmm.org/research/research-in-collections/collections-highlights/music-of-the-holocaust-highlights-from-the-collection/music-of-the-holocaust for Holocaust music in general (accessed 5 January 2017).

24 See ‘Revolutionsfeier hinter Stacheldraht’ 1934, 5; Pingel 1978, 249 note 115; Langhoff & Schabrod 1983, 155; Langhoff 1988, 238–239 and Pakullis s.d., 2.

25 See Philipp 1996 and 2002; Fackler 2000, 403–405, 408–409. See also Schwake 1946. Gregor Schwake reports under the section “Ten Years Ago” from January 1954 to April 1955 in the journal Singt dem Herrn. Sängerblatt des ACV für Deutschland, Österreich und die Schweiz (Cologne) on his musical activities in the Dachau camp. Meanwhile a recording of Schwake’s mass has appeared as music tape in Germany under the title Gregor Schwake: Dachauer Messe. In viam pacis. Regina pacis (conductor: Anton Roth; Meckenbeuren 1998).

26 Interview of Franz Brückl [formerly Przybylsky] by the author on 23 May 1995.

27 See Kalmar 1988, 77; interview of Hans Gasparitsch by the author on 10 October 1995.

28 Report nr. 28 “Kunst im K.L. Bu” of the Collection Otto Halle, Archive of the Gedenkstätte Buchenwald in Weimar, 2 (= 13).

29 Published in Muth 1984, 11. See also the interview of Miroslav Broft by the author on 8 and 12 May 1996.

30 Reports of Wacław Czarnecki, Zygmunt Zonik and the Internationales Lagerkomitee quoted from Staar 1987, 36–37.

Haut de page

Table des illustrations

Titre This pen-and-ink drawing under the title “Wymarsz komand do praxy” (“Marching to work”), from the cycle “Day of the prisoner” (1950), was made by Mieczysław Koscielniak, a former prisoner, in 1950
Légende It shows a work detail leaving Auschwitz: in the background a prisoner can be seen conducting the camp orchestra.
Crédits © M. Koscielniak
URL http://journals.openedition.org/temoigner/docannexe/image/5732/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 463k
Titre A copy of the The Peat Bog Soldiers made by Hanns Kralik in the KZ Börgermoor 1933. After his release Günter Daus brought this copy outside the camp
Crédits © Archive of Dokumentations- und Informationszentrum Emslandlager in Papenburg, Germany, estate Günter Daus.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/temoigner/docannexe/image/5732/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 136k
Titre SS-photograph showing a camp ensemble, probably in the Janowska concentration camp
Crédits © Renzo Vespigniani
URL http://journals.openedition.org/temoigner/docannexe/image/5732/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 109k
Titre Drawing made secretly in Birkenau by François Reisz
Légende It shows the camp orchestra playing as work details returns to the camp; they carried out the dead on stretchers and handcarts.
Crédits © Projektgruppe Musik in Konzentrationslagern
URL http://journals.openedition.org/temoigner/docannexe/image/5732/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 247k
Titre In 1942 in Dachau, an evening of song given by the Czechoslovakian camp choir was recorded in this drawing by Vladimir Matejka
Légende The huge crowd enjoying this rare musical treat shows clearly how important it was for prisoners to be able to organize a musical performance like this.
Crédits © Deutsche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin
URL http://journals.openedition.org/temoigner/docannexe/image/5732/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 131k
Haut de page

Pour citer cet article

Référence papier

Guido Fackler, « Music in Concentration Camps 1933–1945 »Témoigner. Entre histoire et mémoire, 124 | 2017, 60-83.

Référence électronique

Guido Fackler, « Music in Concentration Camps 1933–1945 »Témoigner. Entre histoire et mémoire [En ligne], 124 | 2017, mis en ligne le 30 novembre 2021, consulté le 16 décembre 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/temoigner/5732 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/temoigner.5732

Haut de page

Traducteur

Peter Logan

Würzburg

Haut de page

Droits d’auteur

Le texte et les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés), sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.

Haut de page
Rechercher dans OpenEdition Search

Vous allez être redirigé vers OpenEdition Search