Music in the Inferno of the Nazi Terror: Jewish Composers in the "Third Reich"

Abstract

In November 1933, the music association of the German Reich, the Reichsmusikkammer, was founded. Jewish musicians were refused membership and were banned from the profession. Some eminent Jewish composers were deported to Terezin, a concentration camp near Prague, where they developed a rich and unique cultural life. While the Nazis used Terezin for propagandistic purposes, the prisoners could find there a temporary relief from the horrible daily life and a way to preserve human dignity. Like most of the Jewish composers in Central Europe, the Terezin composers were not much aware of their Jewish identity prior to their persecution. However, the restrictive measures of the Nazis led to a separate, artificially concentrated Jewish musical culture. While the musical language of these composers before and during the Terezin years remained unchanged, the experience in the camp molded their works in a different way-the symbolic and metaphoric content and the emotional expression of those works were greatly stimulated by the impressions of this horrible experience. Over 50 years after the destruction of the German-Jewish symbiosis, a posthumous chapter is to be added. The new German generation shows a strong interest in the investigation and revival of the exterminated Jewish culture.