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
The Holocaust's systematic persecution of Jews and other targeted groups left its mark on global culture, with the silencing of countless musicians and composers. This section explores their two main responses under Nazi oppression: Resistance and Exile.
Here, you'll discover how musicians defied the regime through covert performances, coded compositions, and cultural preservation efforts. Additionally, you'll learn about the experiences of those forced into exile, their struggles to adapt and rebuild their careers abroad, and the lasting influence they had on music worldwide.
This section sheds light on the tragic loss of artistic potential and its profound impact on both German and international cultural development.
Arnold Schoenberg
Emigré
Composer
Composer Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951) together with Berg and Webern, are known as the Second Viennese School. His revolutionary musical technique of dodecaphony (twelve tones) was his signature creation.
Berthold Goldschmidt
Emigré
Composer
Emigre composer Berthold Goldschmidt (1903-1996) died in London at the age of 93. He had lived at the same ground floor flat since leaving Germany to flee the Nazis in October 1935.
Hanns Eisler
Emigré
Composer
Marxist composer Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) was in Vienna in January 1933 when Hitler became German Chancellor. Eisler stayed true to his Communist ideals, fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s and America in the 1940s.
Joseph Schmidt
Emigré
Singer
Actor
Cantor
When the war broke out Joseph Schmidt (1904-1942) fled to France then retreated to Switzerland. Although in possession of an American visa and well known, he was interned and, owing to a lack of medical attention, he died on 16 November 1942.
British Internment and Music
Emigré
Composer
Hans Gál (1890-1987) enjoyed professional success prior to 1933. When the Nazis came to power, he served as director of the Mainz Conservatory but was dismissed and his work was banned from both performance and publication.
Paul Arma
Composer
Emigré
Paul Arma (1905-1987) is a crucial figure in the history of French Resistance music, both because of the songs he composed and because of his efforts to preserve the enormous body of music created during the war. Arma saw Resistance songs not just as sources of hope and acts of wartime courage, but also as important artefacts to be saved.
Leopold Spinner
Emigré
Composer
Ukrainian composer, musicologist and editor Leopold Spinner (1906-1980) escaped Nazi persecution in 1938. In England he worked in a train factory before joining Boosey & Hawkes in 1947, eventually as chief editor, focusing on Stravinsky.
Varian Fry and Alma Mahler-Werfel
Emigré
Composer
Varian Fry (1907-1967) was an American journalist who ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
Hans Keller
Emigré
Musicologist
Austrian-born British musicologist and music critic Hans Keller (1919-1985), who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, was arrested by the Nazis and forced to leave Austria following the Anschluss in 1938.
Bela Bartok
Emigré
Composer
Béla Bartók (1881-1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century. He refused to perform in Germany after 1933.
Alexander Zemlinsky
Emigré
Composer
Conductor
Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942) was an Austrian composer, conductor and teacher. He fled Germany in 1933 reaching the US in 1938, but he did not flourish and he was almost forgotten.
Jan van Gilse
Emigré
Composer
Jan van Gilse (1881-1944) a Dutch composer and conductor, began serving as director of the Utrecht Conservatory in 1933, a post he accepted upon leaving Berlin after the rise of the Nazi regime.
Partisans
Partisan
During World War II, many European Jews defied their Nazi oppressors by actively resisting. This partisan warfare, carried out by clandestine, irregular forces operating inside enemy territory, was particularly widespread in the dense forests and marshlands of Eastern Europe.
Shmerke Kaczerginski
Musician
Partisan
Poet
Poet and partisan fighter Shmerke Kaczerginski (1908-1954) was a collector of Yiddish Shoah song. He was sent to the Vilna ghetto in early 1942 where he crafted songs to console prisoners and encourage resistance.
The Troubadours of the French Resistance
Partisan
Songs of the French resistance were collected by Paul Arma with his wife Edmée to rescue from obscurity the numerous songs that were written as acts of resistance during World War II, and to recognise the efforts made and dangers faced by their creators.
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.
Resistance & Exile
Soviet Union
György Ligeti
The music education of Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti (1923-2006) was interrupted when he was sent to a forced labour brigade by the Horthy regime.
Resistance & Exile
Kurt Huber
Kurt Huber (1893-1943) was a member of the Munich-based resistance group, die Weiße Rose. His execution in 1943 sent shock-waves throughout Europe.
Resistance & Exile
Paul Arma
Paul Arma (1905-1987) saw Resistance songs not just as sources of hope and acts of wartime courage, but also as important artefacts to be saved.
Resistance & Exile
The Double Life of French Jazz
With the outbreak of war, French jazz floundered, but in December 1940, Charles Delaunay organised a jazz festival to revive the genre. It sold out in 24 hours.