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A Comparative Analysis of the Musical Activities A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MUSICAL ACTIVITIES WITHIN THREE GERMAN OCCUPIED CONCENTRATION CAMPS: WARSAW, TEREZÍN, AND AUSCHWITZ _______________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of San Diego State University _______________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Music _______________ by Melanie Maxine Hutchings Summer 2012 iii Copyright © 2012 by Melanie Maxine Hutchings All Rights Reserved iv ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS A Comparative Analysis of the Musical Activities within Three German Occupied Concentration Camps: Warsaw, Terezín, and Auschwitz by Melanie Maxine Hutchings Master of Arts in Music San Diego State University, 2012 The intention of this study was to examine the musical activities within three different concentration camps during World War II. The chosen concentration camps for this thesis represented three distinct types of camps: a ghetto, a transitory/labor camp, and an extermination camp. Comparative methods were used to discover similarities and differences of the musical activities that were allowed and encouraged by the Nazis. The study focused on seven areas of interest: repertoire, instruments, ensembles, venues, rules dictating musical activities, Nazi’s use of music, and the musicians’ status within the camp. It was found that the type of musical activities that existed within the camp directly correlated with the objective of that particular camp. Auschwitz was designed to systematically exterminate the Jews through their elaborate gas and crematorium chambers. Terezín was used for propaganda purposes to convince worried world leaders of the general well-being of the Jews. And finally, Warsaw was a temporary gathering place for the Jews until its citizens could be transported to extermination camps. Music existed in the camps and was used as a tool to survive the war. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 Review of Literature ................................................................................................5 Purpose .....................................................................................................................7 Limitations ...............................................................................................................8 Methodology ............................................................................................................8 Definition of Terms..................................................................................................9 2 AUSCHWITZ ..............................................................................................................11 Repertoire ...............................................................................................................12 Instruments .............................................................................................................15 Venues....................................................................................................................17 Musical Groups ......................................................................................................18 Nazi Policy on Music .............................................................................................19 Musicians’ Status ...................................................................................................20 Nazis’ Use of Music...............................................................................................22 3 TEREZÍN .....................................................................................................................24 Repertoire ...............................................................................................................26 Instruments .............................................................................................................31 Venues....................................................................................................................33 Musical Groups ......................................................................................................34 Nazi Policy on Music .............................................................................................37 Musicians’ Status ...................................................................................................38 Nazis’ Use of Music...............................................................................................39 4 WARSAW ...................................................................................................................42 Repertoire ...............................................................................................................44 vi Instruments .............................................................................................................48 Venues....................................................................................................................49 Musical Groups ......................................................................................................52 Nazi Policy on Music .............................................................................................54 Musicians’ Status ...................................................................................................56 Nazis’ Use of Music...............................................................................................57 5 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................60 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................71 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to my thesis chair Dr. Eric Smigel, who generously supported me throughout the writing process. I am grateful for his willingness to work with me and offer invaluable advice and direction. I would like to thank my family members, especially my husband, Phillip Bourne, for his endless love and encouragement. He supplied me with motivation when it was lacking, comfort in moments of frustration, and advice when it was needed. I could not have written this thesis without the patience of my two small children, Chase Allen Bourne and Brielle Joyce Bourne. They are a great source of happiness to my husband and me. I owe my deepest gratitude to my mother. She spent countless hours tending my children while I was at the library studying, writing, and editing my thesis. 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The tunes are few, a dozen, the same ones every day, morning and evening: marches and popular songs dear to every German. They lie engraven on our minds and will be the last thing in Lager that we shall forget: they are the voice of the Lager, the perceptible expression of its geometrical madness, of the resolution of others to annihilate us first as men in order to kill us more slowly afterwards. - Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz The Nazi party officially formed a unified government after the elections in 1932, when they received 33 percent of the vote by the people. Hitler and his followers had made an unsuccessful attempt to take control over the Bavarian Government as early as 1923 in the “Beer Hall Putch,” which led to his imprisonment. Finally, in 1932, Hitler gained enough of a following after the Nazis campaigned in Munich, Vienna, and Bayreuth to win the election. The German populace who voted in favor of the anti-Semitic leader hoped that the charismatic Hitler could save Germany from the economic depression following World War I.1 The German economy was highly unstable following the war, with massive unemployment and rampant poverty. Hitler’s eloquent speeches generated widespread hope among Germans that the Nazi regime could revitalize their country. In response to questions of loyalty to Hitler, a former Nazi replied: Murder, we surely didn’t want that. But the world should understand what Hitler meant to us. In 1933 I was 28 years old and had an architect’s diploma, but because of the depression I had never had a job or earned a penny. Do you know what it’s like for a young man to live without hope, without a chance to make a living? Hitler gave us work, and more, he gave us hope, no price seemed too high to pay for that. No one turns down hope. So we followed him.2 1 Susan J. Eischeid, “The Musical Climate in Nazi Germany during the Pre-War Years (1931-1938) and the Impact of Wagnerian Causal Effects on it and on Musical Life in the Holocaust Period” (Ph.D. diss., University of Cincinnati, 1992), 56-57. 2 Alexander Donat, The Holocaust Kingdom: A Memoir (New York: RineHart, 1965), 262. 2 On 30 January 1933 Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the newly official party, and within one year he implemented policies to solve the “Jewish problem,” which included expulsion, ghettoization, and extermination.3 Under the auspices of the Nazi party, Hitler legalized genocide through the innovation of concentration camps.4 The realization of Hitler’s vision of a German re-birth necessitated the development of concentration camps. Named after Maria Theresa, Terezín (or the German name Theresienstadt) was originally
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