First of three parts
More than 11 Million individuals, six Million of them Jews, died in the Holocaust, 1933-1945. 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 presented by a recent 60 Minutes television show on CBS.
Jon Wertheim wrote the following presentation in regard to this compelling story.
“The sign above the steel gates of Auschwitz reads ‘arbeit macht frei’ – work sets you free. It was, of course, a chilling lie, an evil hoax. But there was one surprising source of temporary escape inside the gates: Music. Composers and singers and musicians, both world-class and recreational, were among the imprisoned. And what’s not widely known is that under the bleakest conditions imaginable, they performed and wrote music (scores). Lots of it.
“Saved by music: A Holocaust survivor’s story:
“More than (11 Million individuals, the majority) of them Jews, died in the Holocaust, but their music did not, thanks in part to the extraordinary work of Francesco Lotoro. An Italian composer and pianist, Lotoro has spent 30 years recovering, performing, and in some cases, finishing pieces of work composed in captivity. Nearly 75 years after the camps were liberated, Francesco Lotoro is on a remarkable rescue mission, reviving music such as one piece created by a young Jewish woman in a Nazi concentration camp in 1944.
“Correspondent Jon Wertheim with Francesco Lotoro:
“Francesco Lotoro (Translation): The miracle is that all of this could have been destroyed, could have been lost. And instead the miracle is that this music reaches us. Music is a phenomenon which wins. That’s the secret of the concentration camps. No one can take it away. No one can imprison it.
“It seems unlikely, even impossible, that music could have been performed and composed at a place like this site of unspeakable evil, the most horrific mass murder in human history.
“This is Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Nazi concentration camp in southern Poland. Set up by the Germans in 1940 as part of Hitler’s ‘Final Solution,’ it became the largest center in the world for the extermination of Jews.
“More than one million men, women and children died here. For those who passed through this entrance, known as the ‘Gate of Death,’ these tracks were a path to genocide and terror.
“After they disembarked from cattle cars, most were sent directly to their deaths in the gas chambers.
“The sounds of the camp included the screech of train brakes, haunting screams of families separated forever, the staccato orders barked by SS guards.
“But in the air: The sound of music, the language of the gods. This piece, entitled “Fantasy” was written for oboe and strings, composed by a prisoner in Poland in 1942.
“In some cases, we are in front of masterpieces that could have changed the path of musical language in Europe.
“At Auschwitz, as at other camps, there were inmate orchestras, set up by the Nazis to play marches and entertain. There was unofficial music, crafted in secret, a way of preserving some dignity where little otherwise existed.
“During the Holocaust, an entire generation of talented musicians, composers, and virtuosos, perished. Seventy-five years later, Francesco Lotoro is breathing life into their work.
“Francesco Lotoro’s work may culminate in stirring musical performances, but that’s just the last measure, so to speak. His rescue missions, largely self-financed, begin the old fashioned way, with lots of hard work, knocking on doors, and face-to-face meetings with survivors and their relatives.
“Jon Wertheim: I have heard that you’ve searched attics and basements. I imagine sometimes families don’t even know the musical treasure they have.
“Francesco Lotoro (Translation): There are children who have inherited all the paper material from their dad who survived the camp and stored it. When I recovered it, it was literally infested with paper worms. So before taking it, a clean-up operation was required, a de-infestation.”
Continued at thevoice.us/more-than-8000-pieces-of-music-collected-from-holocaust