SCORING THE HOLOCAUST: A COMPARATIVE, THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FUNCTION OF FILM MUSIC IN GERMAN HOLOCAUST CINEMA Matthew William Lawson BMus (Hons), MA (York), PGCTHE, FHEA A thesis submitted to the Department of Media, Edge Hill University, in partial fulfilment of the Edge Hill University requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2016 P a g e | 2 Dedicated to Pauline (1924-2005) and Kenneth Eyre (1922-2011) P a g e | 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Edge Hill University and my supervisory team for providing excellent opportunities to me throughout my years with them. The Graduate Teaching Assistantship enabled me to undertake a funded PhD; something which I will be eternally grateful for. They have also provided funding to enable me to travel to conferences both domestically and internationally which offered invaluable experience to me as an early career researcher. Furthermore, I have had the opportunity to earn valuable teaching experience and receive a PGCTHE qualification, leading to Fellow status with the Higher Education Academy. I also thank my supervisors who have been incredibly patient throughout the process, and have offered invaluable, detailed advice. I would like to thank the various external funding bodies who have supported me throughout the PhD programme. These include the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure who enabled me to spend six weeks in Munich in order to access vital German-language resources, the Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst who supported a similar one- month visit to Germany in November 2014, and the George Heim Memorial Trust who offered a small grant to support a conference visit to Krakow, Poland. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my friends and family, both near and far, who have supported me during the difficult periods of my research. The PhD process can be overwhelmingly lonely, isolating, and frustrating, and the importance of having the love and support of those closest to me cannot be understated. To my wife Nichola, words cannot express how grateful I am for sacrificing so much during the first part of our marriage to enable me to complete a PhD on the other side of the country. I am grateful that I have a lifetime to repay you for your patience, understanding and undying support. Finally, to our son Harry, you brought true happiness during difficult times, and your smiles made the long days of writing and editing much more bearable. P a g e | 4 ABSTRACT Holocaust representation in film has received much academic attention, with a focus on how cinematography and the narrative may assist our memorialisation process. One aspect of film which has received little academic attention, however, is the issue surrounding the musical accompaniments of such films. The musical score often goes unnoticed, but may also contain emotional qualities. It can make an audience laugh, cry or alter their perception of the narrative. The three countries of East, West and reunified Germany have each attempted to engage with the Holocaust, including through the medium of film. They have done so in contrasting ways and to varying degrees of effectiveness. The opposing political, social and cultural environments of East and West Germany outweighed their geographical proximity. Likewise, reunified Germany developed a third, divergent approach to Holocaust engagement. This thesis combines three key existing fields of academia: film music theory, Holocaust representation in film, and German politics, history and culture. Through comparative textual analyses of six film case studies, two each from East, West and reunified Germany, this thesis examines whether there are examples of similarities or inherent, reoccurring musical characteristics which define the Holocaust on screen. Furthermore, the six analyses will be supported by contextual examinations of the respective countries, directors and composers in order to ascertain whether there were political, cultural and/or social considerations which impacted upon the film scores. The original contribution to knowledge to which this thesis lays claim is that it forms the first significant scholarly engagement with not only the film music of German Holocaust cinema specifically, but, on a broader scale, the ongoing theoretical discourse surrounding film music and representation. This new contribution to Holocaust knowledge also extends to a continued development of the understanding of and engagement with the event and its audio-visual representations. P a g e | 5 LIST OF FIGURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: Visual Imagery in Nackt unter Wölfen 45 Fig. 2: The three categories of film music function (Stephen Deutsch) 2007) 50 Fig. 3: Frank Beyer and Joachim Werzlau 64 Fig. 4: Music in Nackt unter Wölfen (1963) 65 Fig. 5: Nackt unter Wölfen – Opening Credits 68 Fig. 6: March accompanying opening credits to Nackt unter Wölfen 69 Fig. 7: Second iteration of march in Nackt unter Wölfen 70 Fig. 8: Es liegt ein Dörflein mitten im Walde sung in a cell 71 Fig. 9: Marching to the Buchenwaldlied 74 Fig.10: Opening credits to Jakob der Lügner 77 Fig.11: Musical Cues in Jakob der Lügner 77 Fig.12: The “ternary form” score of Jakob der Lügner 79 Fig.13: Motif I from Jakob der Lügner 80 Fig.14: Motif II from Jakob der Lügner 81 Fig.15: Jakob walks through the ghetto 82 Fig.16: Motif II from Jakob der Lügner (opening 8 bars) 82 Fig.17: Reminiscing about food 83 Fig.18: Motif II from Jakob der Lügner (transition) 84 Fig.19 :Motif III in Jakob der Lügner 84 Fig. 20: Jakob’s wife on the station platform 85 Fig. 21: Jakob in the toilet 87 Fig. 22: Motif IV from Jakob der Lügner (i) 88 Fig. 23: Motif IV from Jakob der Lügner (ii) 88 Fig. 24: Jakob mimics a radio with a jug 89 Fig. 25: Donauwellen 91 Fig. 26: Beethoven’s Ninth in Kornblumenblau 92 Fig. 27: Ghetto ensemble in Jakob the Liar 93 Fig. 28: Russians liberate the train 95 Fig. 29: Lina’s hallucination 95 Fig. 30: Music in the East German films 96 Fig. 31: Intertitles in Aus einem deutschen Leben 112 Fig. 32: Music in Aus einem deutschen Leben 116 Fig. 33: Synthesised opening to Aus einem deutschen Leben 117 Fig. 34: Whistling of the Deutschlandlied 118 Fig. 35: Alone in a prison cell. 120 Fig. 36: Hynkel and the globe 131 Fig. 37: Musical Cues in Part Three of Hitler, ein Film aus Deutschland 132 Fig. 38: Himmler and his masseur 135 Fig. 39: Siegfried’s funeral march from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung 135 Fig. 40: The Wälsung leitmotif appearance 137 Fig. 41: The Wälsung leitmotif 138 Fig. 42: The sword leitmotif from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen 139 Fig. 43: The love leitmotif from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen 140 Fig. 44: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin 150 Fig. 45: Music Cues in Der Letzte Zug 160 P a g e | 6 Fig. 46: Berlin Grunewald station 164 Fig. 47: The string leitmotif 165 Fig. 48: The visual train motif 165 Fig. 49: Di Grine Kuzine 167 Fig. 50: Noschik performs Di Grine Kuzine 168 Fig. 51: The wedding band 170 Fig. 52: Chosen Kala Mazel Tov 171 Fig. 53: Noschik arrives at Auschwitz 173 Fig. 54: Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 173 Fig. 55: Noschik sings Beethoven’s 9th Symphony 174 Fig. 56: Escape and prayer 176 Fig. 57: Music Cues in Die Fälscher 178 Fig. 58: Sorowitsch sitting on Monte Carlo beach 184 Fig. 59: Sorowitsch discusses Argentina and tangoes 187 Fig. 60: The privileged Jew: Sorowitsch in Sachsenhausen 187 Fig. 61: Sorowitsch discusses his family in Sachsenhausen 188 Fig. 62: Final scene of Un Chien Andalou (1929) and Die Fälscher (2006) 190 Fig. 63: “Sometimes we heard that lovely music” 193 Fig. 64: Walking through horror/laying Loszek to rest 194 Fig. 65: Horst-Wessel-Lied 196 Fig. 66: Sorowitsch painting 197 P a g e | 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 4 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 9 1.1 DEFINING HOLOCAUST 12 1.2 HOLOCAUST RECEPTION AND LEGACY IN THE GERMANIES 13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 17 2.1 HOLOCAUST REPRESENTATION IN FILM 17 2.2 FILM MUSIC THEORY 23 2.3 HOLOCAUST FILM MUSIC 33 2.4 DEFINING JEWISH MUSIC 38 2.5 EMERGING ISSUES 41 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 42 3.1 QUALITATIVE TEXTUAL ANALYSIS VERSUS QUANTITATIVE EMPIRICISM 42 3.2 THE CASE STUDIES 43 3.3 CATEGORIES OF FILM MUSIC FUNCTIONS 49 CHAPTER 4: FILMS OF EAST GERMANY 54 4.1 THE HOLOCAUST IN EAST GERMANY 54 4.2 EAST GERMAN CINEMA 57 4.3 NACKT UNTER WÖLFEN (NAKED AMONG WOLVES, 1963) 63 4.4 JAKOB DER LÜGNER (JAKOB THE LIAR, 1974) 75 4.5 EMERGING ISSUES AND SUMMARY 96 CHAPTER 5: FILMS OF WEST GERMANY 101 5.1 THE HOLOCAUST IN WEST GERMANY 101 5.2 WEST GERMAN CINEMA 105 5.3 AUS EINEM DEUTSCHEN LEBEN (DEATH IS MY TRADE 1977) 111 5.4 HITLER, EIN FILM AUS DEUTSCHLAND (HITLER, A FILM FROM GERMANY, 1977) 123 P a g e | 8 5.5 EMERGING ISSUES AND SUMMARY 144 CHAPTER 6: FILMS OF REUNIFIED GERMANY 148 6.1 THE HOLOCAUST IN REUNIFIED GERMANY 148 6.2 REUNIFIED GERMAN CINEMA 151 6.3 DER LETZTE ZUG (THE LAST TRAIN, 2006) 158 6.4 DIE FÄLSCHER (THE COUNTERFEITERS, 2007) 176 6.5 EMERGING ISSUES AND SUMMARY 197 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION 200 BIBLIOGRAPHY 210 FILMOGRAPHY 228 P a g e | 9 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Representations of the Holocaust on screen, the German engagement with the Holocaust, and film music studies are three academic disciplines which are represented by a varying, eclectic range of scholarly studies. This thesis seeks to combine all three into one piece of academic research.