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AYURI Research Project Paper.Pdf Creating Beauty Out of Darkness: An Exploration into the Artistic Resistance of Jewish Music of the Holocaust Brittany R. Weinstock Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative Pepperdine University Fall 2020-Spring 2021 Mentorship & Research Supervisor Dr. Gary W. Cobb Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………2 Terezín……………………………………………………………………………………..2 Composers of Focus……………………………………………………………………….3 Themes……………………………………………………………………………………………4 Satire and Allegory………………………………………………………………………..4 Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Viktor Ullmann)………………………………………..5 Brundibár (Hans Krása)………………………………………………………….14 Freedom and Resistance…………………………………………………………………16 String Trio (Gideon Klein)……………………………………………………….16 Brundibár (Hans Krása)………………………………………………………….21 “Yugnt Himn” (Shmerke Kaczerginski)………………………………………….23 Lyrics…………………………………………………………………………………………….25 “Shtiler, Shtiler” (Shmerke Kaczerginski)……………………………………………….26 Březulinka (Viktor Ullmann)…………………………………………………………….29 “Berjoskele”……………………………………………………………………..31 “Margarithelech”………………………………………………………………..33 “A Mejdel in die Johren”…………………………………………………………34 Jewish and Cultural Folk Elements…………………………………………………………..34 Entartete Musik…………………………………………………………………………..34 Březulinka (Viktor Ullmann)…………………………………………………………….36 2 Piano Sonata No. 7 (Viktor Ullmann)……………………………………………………40 String Trio (Gideon Klein)……………………………………………………………….44 “Al S’Fod” (Pavel Haas)…………………………………………………………………47 “Přijde jaro přijde”………………………………………………………………………49 The Act of Making Art………………………………………………………………………….50 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………53 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………….55 1 Abstract When we think of the the Holocaust, we rightfully remember the atrocities committed by Hitler and his Nazi regime. However, we often fail to recognize the beautiful, albeit tragic, music that was composed in the concentration camps, specifically in Terezín. In this project, I study the Jewish composers and lyricists who contributed to this musical output, specifically Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krása, Pavel Haas, and Schmerke Kaczerginski. The goal of this study is to identify and examine specific components of resistance within these composers’ works and show how they come together to create a larger opposition to Hitler’s regime despite oppressive and exploitative conditions. In going about my research, I studied numerous musical scores written during the Holocaust. I then chose those that best represented this artistic resistance and elaborated on them. I also read articles, books, and documents that gave me a further insight into the art and life of this tragic period. Additionally, I was able to obtain an interview with Terezín survivor Inge Auerbacher, who spoke about her experiences. I found that these composers and lyricists integrated resilience into their work through themes, lyrics, Jewish and cultural folk elements, and the very act of making art itself. I was astonished by the strength and ability of these men to create art and express themselves under these conditions. They left a Jewish legacy to be passed down to posterity despite their own eventual deaths, and in doing so ensured that the Jewish people, and art itself, would live on. 2 Introduction Music has always been one of the most important expressive art forms in human history. From the earliest times, humans used it to tell stories, to perform cultural rituals, to entertain, to teach, and to pray, among a myriad of other purposes. Songs were passed down from generation to generation and survived even long after their composers were deceased. Music gave a window into a world that had long since faded into the mists of time and told stories of the people who performed it. An important and tragic instance of this is the music of the Holocaust. Composers, especially those who wrote in modernist styles or who were of ‘undesirable ethnicities’, wrote music that the Nazi regime tried to stomp out entirely. It seemed, for a while, as if Jewish music would cease to exist in its entirety. However, the work that came out of the Terezín concentration camp would prove otherwise. Terezín Terezín resided in the Czech Republic just 30 miles north of Prague. Surrounded by a fortress known as Theresienstadt, the once luxurious nobility resort was turned into a ghetto and concentration camp by the Nazis in 1940.1 Theresienstadt was used as both a transit point to death camps such as Auschwitz, as well as a propaganda tool to show what a ‘model ghetto’ might look like.2 The camp was even the subject of a famous 1944 propaganda film, Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt (The Führer Gives the Jews a City) in which life was pictured as 1. “The History of Terezin,” Terezin: Children of the Holocaust, http://www.terezin.org/the- history-of-terezin. 2. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC, “Theresienstadt: Red Cross Visit,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ theresienstadt-red-cross-visit. 3 being something of a paradise, although in reality that description couldn’t be further from the truth.3 The Nazis used music in the film, including Hans Krása’s acclaimed children’s opera Brundibár, to try and bloat the image of life in the concentration camp. Many Czech Jews were sent to the camp, forced to leave behind the lives they knew and adjust to a world behind barbed wire fences. Inge Auerbacher, an acclaimed author, public speaker, and child survivor of Terezín remembers that “we lived very crowded…and food was very scarce”.4 Among the Terezín prisoners were several prolific composers and writers, some already well-established, others showing great promise within the musical world. This was largely due to the fact that many musical performances were put on for show because of the use of the Terezín camp for propaganda purposes.5 The oppression of Europe’s Jews from the 1930’s to the 1940’s led to an outpouring of beautiful yet tragic music from these composers. Some created more reflective music, others made music that paid homage to their Jewish heritage, some used it for resistance, and others for satire that was banned by the Nazi guards in the camp. Composers of Focus The four composers of focus include Viktor Ullmann, a Silesian Jew who grew up in Vienna and studied under the acclaimed composer Arnold Schönberg but was trapped in Prague during the Nazi invasion of 1939; Hans Krása, a native Czech who won much acclaim as a young composer; Gideon Klein, a promising young Czech composer whose prolific outpouring 3. Der Führer Schenkt Den Juden Eine Stadt, 1944, https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=_Rkjyw4003Q&has_verified=1. 4. Weinstock, Brittany, and Inge Auerbacher. “Inge Auerbacher Personal Interview.” Personal, December 29, 2020. 5. Guido Fackler, “Theresienstadt,” Music and the Holocaust (ORT: Impact Through Education, n.d.), http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/theresienstadt/. 4 of creative genius was tragically cut short in the gas chambers; and Pavel Haas, a Czech Jew who drew from a variety of different cultures and sounds in his music.6 The lyricist that will be studied, Shmerke Kaczerginski, was never imprisoned in Terezín, nor in a concentration camp at all. Instead, he was born in Russian Lithuania and became involved with the partisan resistance movement, writing text to songs that soon became anthems of the ghetto.7 These composers and lyricists differed in their art but came together to create beauty out of the darkness, and, above all, to resist the heavy hand of Hitler’s regime. Although persecuted and oppressed by the Nazis, Jewish composers and musicians were able to work resistance and resilience into their music during the Holocaust through themes, lyrics, Jewish and cultural folk elements, and the very act of making art itself. Themes Satire and Allegory When composers wrote music interned in concentration camps, many of them had specific themes in mind. Their works often reflected on their oppressive situation and contained messages or themes they worked into their music to express themselves despite the restrictions placed on them within the camp. Perhaps the most dangerous of these themes was that of satire and allegory. Satire had mixed reactions in Nazi Germany. On the one hand, humor remained popular and was even encouraged by the National Socialist Party leading up to and in the early 6. Shirli Gilbert and David Bloch, “Music and the Holocaust,” Music and the Holocaust (ORT: Impact Through Education, n.d.), http://holocaustmusic.ort.org. 7. Shirli Gilbert and David Bloch, “Shmerke Kaczerginski,” Music and the Holocaust (ORT: Impact Through Education, n.d.), http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/ghettos/vilna/shmerke- kaczerginski/. 5 years after the regime’s takeover in 1933. The party even developed this type of humor themselves, using it to mock and stir hatred against their enemies. However, satire lost popularity in the years following due, in large part, to public disapproval.8 All of a sudden, when the satire was turned on themselves, the people protested. Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Viktor Ullmann) Viktor Ullmann delved into the world of satire in Terezín with his 1943 opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis, or The Emperor of Atlantis, with a libretto by Petr Kein. The opera heavily satirizes Hitler, fascism, war, and death, borrowing from an array of musical inspiration such as Bach, Mahler, Suk, and cabaret.9 These musical nods can be heard throughout Ullmann’s unique score, playing into parts of the story
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