Second of three parts
The first part is available at thevoice.us/sheet-music-intact-survives-holocaust-75-years-later
More than 11 Million individuals, six Million of them Jews, died in the Holocaust. The music they wrote as a temporary escape, however, did not die, thanks in part to the efforts of an Italian composer and pianist, Francesco Lotoro.
“The Lost Music” was a riveting story recently presented by 60 Minutes television show on CBS.
Jon Wertheim wrote the following presentation in regard to this compelling story.
“Lotoro grew up and still lives in Barletta, an ancient town on the Adriatic Coast of southern Italy. His modest home, which doubles as his office, is stuffed with tapes, audio cassettes, diaries and microfilm.
“Aided by his wife, Grazia, who works at the local post office to support the family, Lotoro has collected and catalogued more than 8,000 pieces of music, including symphonies, operas, folk songs, and Gypsy tunes scribbled on everything from food wrapping to telegrams, even potato sacks.
“The prisoner who composed one piece used the charcoal given to him as dysentery medicine and toilet paper to write an entire symphony which was later smuggled out in the camp laundry.
“Jon Wertheim: He’s using his dysentery medication as a pen and he’s using toilet paper as paper.
“Francesco Lotoro: Yes.
“Jon Wertheim: And that’s how he writes a symphony.
“Francesco Lotoro: Yes, when you lost freedom, toilet paper and coal can be freedom.
“It’s a testament to resourcefulness, how far artists will go to create. It’s a testament to the range of emotions that prisoners experienced.
“This tender composition was written by a Pole while he was in Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Lotoro said that if music like this isn’t performed, it’s as if it’s still imprisoned in the camps. It hasn’t been freed.
“This wasn’t an obvious calling for an Italian who was raised Roman Catholic, but from age 15, Lotoro said, he felt the pull of another religion.
“Jon Wertheim: You converted to Judaism. You say you have a Jewish soul. Define what that means.
“Francesco Lotoro (Translation): There was a rabbi who explained to me that when a person converts to Judaism, in reality he doesn’t convert. He goes back to being Jewish. Doing this research is possibly the most Jewish thing that I know.
“Francesco Lotoro (Translation): We Jews have a word which expresses this concept. Mitzvah. It is not something that someone tells you you must do, you know as a Jew that you must do it.
“Lotoro’s quest began in 1988 when he learned about the music created by prisoners in the Czech concentration camp Theresienstadt. The Nazis had set up the camp to fool the world into believing they were treating Jews humanely. Inmates were allowed to create and stage performances, some of which survive in this Nazi propoganda film. Lotoro was amazed by the level of musicianship and wondered what else was out there.
“He reached out to Bret Werb, music curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington D.C.. Werb said Francesco Lotoro is building on the legacy of others who have searched for concentration camp music, but Lotoro is taking it to the next level, by making the scores performable.
“Jon Wertheim: Why did people in concentration camps turn to music?
“Bret Werb: It helped people to cope. It helped people to escape. It gave people something to do. It allowed them to comment on the experiences that they were undergoing.
“Jon Wertheim: Did music save lives during the Holocaust?
“Bret Werb: There is no doubt that being a member of an orchestra increased your chances of survival.
“Anita Lasker-Wallfisch is one of the last surviving members of the women’s orchestra at Auschwitz. She is now 94 years old. We met her at her home in London.
“Jon Wertheim: What had you heard about the camp before you arrived?
“Anita Lasker-Wallfisch: We heard everything that was going on there only we didn’t – still tried not to believe it. But by the time I arrived there, in fact, I knew it was a reality, gas chambers and… yeah…
“Jon Wertheim: You came prepared for the worst?
“Anita Lasker-Wallfisch: I came prepared for the worst, yes.
“Her parents, German Jews, were taken away in 1942 and she never saw them again. She was just 18 when she arrived at the death camp a year later.
“Anita Lasker-Wallfisch: We were put in some sort of block and waited all night, and the next morning there was a sort of welcome ceremony and there were lots of people sitting there doing the reception business. Like tattooing you, taking your hair off, et cetera. That’s all done by prisoners themselves.
“The numbers are still visible on her left arm.”
Continued at thevoice.us/death-prevalent-in-holocaust-yet-music-the-life-that-remained