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Songs of the Holocaust

Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letstn veg

Also known as ‘The Partisans' Song’, is perhaps the best-known of the Yiddish songs created during the Holocaust. It was written by the young Vilna poet Hirsh Glik, and based on a pre-existing melody by the Soviet-Jewish composer Dimitri Pokrass.

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Rumkowski Khayim

'Rumkowski Khayim' was known to many survivors of the Łódź ghetto. The opening three verses speak in turn about the three Khayims: Khayim Rumkowski, Khayim Weitzmann, the Zionist leader, and Khayim der grober (the fat), the undertaker of the ghetto.

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Nit kayn rozhinkes, nit kayn mandlen

'Nit kayn rozhinkes , nit kayn mandlen' (No more raisins, no more almonds) is a theatre lullaby composed by Dovid Beyglman, with lyrics by the poet Isaiah Shpigl. It was published by Shmerke Kaczerginski and other song collectors.

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In dem kleinem Dorf in Smiltschenzi

“In dem kleinem Dorf in Smiltschenzi,” conveys the suffering of Jewish mothers separated from their children and longing for their homes. The style and form of the song, as sung by Liubov, echoes interwar period cabaret and theatre songs

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An den Kleinen Radioapparat

'An den Kleinen Radioapparat' (To the Little Radio) was composed in exile in 1942 by Hanns Eisler to lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. The words are addressed to a radio, which broadcast news from Nazi Germany.

The Nazi camps and ghettos saw the emergence of a wide range of topical songs that addressed the immediate experiences and conditions of internment. These compositions, often set to familiar melodies or created entirely anew, served as a form of oral history and social commentary. They covered a range of subjects, from the mundane aspects of daily life to more severe topics like hunger, disease, and the constant threat of deportation.

In ghettos like Lodz and Vilna, songs about food shortages, the cold and forced labor were common. The Warsaw Ghetto produced numerous songs chronicling resistance efforts. In camps, inmates composed pieces that subtly critiqued their captors or bolstered morale among fellow prisoners. Yiddish, as well as other languages, featured prominently in these musical creations. While some of these songs survived through oral transmission or hidden written records, many were lost. Those that remain provide valuable historical insights, offering a unique perspective on how individuals processed and documented their experiences through music during this period.

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Genocide

Bogdanovka

In Bogdanovka, music was used by perpetrators as part of their grotesque and deliberate parodisation of Jewish culture intended to mediate genocide.

Genocide

Komitas Vardapet

Composer and musicologist Komitas Vardapet was one of few to survive the exile of 800 Armenian intellectuals in April 1915.

Memory

Beyond Victimhood: Reimagining Holocaust Music in Classical Programming

'Holocaust composers' like Ullmann, Haas, or Schulhoff were musicians first, the most important part of their identity, and should be commemorated as musicians.

Response
Memory

Buchenwald Tigers

The Tigers of Buchenwald performed in the camp after liberation at events organized by former prisoners and later a two-year musical journey throughout Germany.

Politics & Propaganda

Classical Music Radio in Wartime Britain

For better or worse, BBC radio was the dominant voice of Britain throughout WWII for which classical music was an important and revealing feature.

Politics & Propaganda

Handel's Judas Maccabaeus

The Nazis changed the texts and settings of Handel’s most popular Old Testament oratorios so that they no longer depicted Jewish triumph.

Resistance & Exile

Anthems for France

Political regimes use hymns as symbols of their values and aspirations. While France was divided by the war, it adopted three anthems between north and south.

Resistance & Exile

Composers in Exile

For many Jewish composers, the rise of Nazism presented a stark choice: stay and submit to an unknown future in an increasingly hostile regime or go into exile.

Response

Brundibár

Brundibár is a children's opera written in 1938 and composed by Hans Krása with lyrics by Adolf Hoffmeister. Its premiere in Terezín was on 23 September 1943.

Response

Bunalied

Bunalied was written in mortal danger in the Buna-Monowitz subcamp of Auschwitz with lyrics by Fritz Löhner-Beda and music by Anton Geppert.

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'Heveti shalom aleykhem' (I bring you greetings of peace), also often titled in the plural, is one of the best-known and -loved Hebrew folk songs. In this rare recording it is sung by surviving Polish children in postwar France, in a recording taken by the Latvian-American psychologist David Boder in September 1946.

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