music was a concentration

Music in Concentration Camps
Remember all those years ago, when we studied WWII and the sheer audacity of a German nation to condemn populations of people upon people (6 million estimated) to torture and extermination? We all know the story. We all feel that uncomfortable horror and sorrow for unnecessary death. A lot happened at Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, and a hundred other camps that changed the world's view on human depravity.

While perusing the Music and Politics journal I came across a strange title: Music in Concentration Camps. I say strange, because I think we don't see the prisoners of those concentration camps and think music. I believe we all see suffering, despair, torture, and inhumanity. This article however, speaks to music in two ways: as a command, and as an escape.

I talked about slavery times in my last post and how the use of music created for them a way of rebellion and hope. The same could go for the prisoners of Auschwitz, but their music could also be their torture. The Nazi's commanded music. They commanded entertainment from their prisoners. They commanded the singing of songs that criticized their prisoners, that evoked within them indecency and inequality. They were forced to sing songs about how they were unworthy and without intelligence. They were forced to sing songs they did not agree with, did not appreciate, and songs that degraded their very being.


In the beginning the camp inmates were not a musical bunch. They were political antagonist who were thrown into camps because of their strong opinions and big mouths. But as the years progressed so did the musical talent and interest among the prisoners. There were secret musical events and politically musical meetings against Nazis. Music could bring pleasure and pain, but still brought hope.

As a double entendre, music was used to support and confide, but would weaken and destroy as well. The positives of music in these camps does not make it right, but instead gives us new understanding and insight. It holds the possibility that although we think of them as prisoners who were treated with the utmost inequality, they were also people of a human existence and complexity that we often fail to consider.

In Dachau they created great symphonies that live on to this day. In Buchenwald they started the first musically inclined band that generated great favor and applause. And in Auschwitz the prisoners sang to their deaths songs of rebellion.