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Professor Finds Prisoners' Music from Auschwitz

Two years ago, music theory professor Patricia Hall traveled to Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. She hoped to learn about the music performed by prisoners in World War II death camps.

Hall, who teaches music at the University of Michigan, had heard that the museum had handwritten manuscripts of such songs.

But, she was surprised by what she found at the museum: unexpectedly happy and popular works, with names such as “The Most Beautiful Time of Life” and “Sing a Song When You’re Sad.”

Hall returned to the Polish museum several times over the next two years. She continued to study other handwritten manuscripts of songs arranged and performed by prisoners.

And this week, a musical group performed one of these songs for the first time since Auschwitz prisoners played it during the war.

Hall told the Associated Press, “I’ve used the expression ‘giving life’ to this manuscript that’s been sitting somewhere for 75 years….Researching one of these manuscripts is just the beginning – you want people to be able to hear what these pieces sound like.”

From 1940 to 1945, more than 1 million people, most of whom were Jewish, died in Auschwitz-Birkenau’s gas chambers¹, or from hunger, disease and forced labor².

Hall said she felt it was important for modern audiences to hear the prisoners’ music. So, she asked Josh Devries, a University of Michigan student, and university professor Oriol Sans to rewrite the manuscripts onto special music software. This made it easier to read and play the music.

Sans is also director of the school’s Contemporary Directions Ensemble³. Last month, the group of musicians gathered to play and record “The Most Beautiful Time of Life.” The recording⁴ is to become part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

That is the same song the group played this week during a free performance at the University of Michigan. The performance was live-streamed for audiences around the world.

Hall estimates that the song was last performed in 1942 or 1943 by Auschwitz prisoners. The prisoners would sometimes put on concerts for German soldiers.

The prisoners themselves did not write the piece. They may have heard the song in the years before they were put in the concentration camp, as it was a popular song in the 1940s.

The prisoners did, however, arrange the music to work for the few instruments available. Hall has so far identified two of the three prisoners who arranged the piece. They are Antoni Gargul, who was released from Auschwitz in 1943, and Maksymilian Pilat, who was released in 1945. Both were Polish political prisoners.

Survivors⁵ and museum officials have said musicians received more food than most other prisoners, had clean clothes and did not perform the hardest labor. But museum director Piotr M. A. Cywinski said that they also experienced some of the worst terrors of the camp.

And Hall said of the musicians, “We like to think (that) the musicians were saved because they had that ability to play instruments. However, it’s been documented by another prisoner that [about] 50 of them ... were taken out and shot.”

Hall said she was surprised that no one discovered the manuscripts earlier. She said she found about eight other manuscripts that she hopes will get recorded and performed in the future. She says she will let someone else do that, however; she describes the environment in Auschwitz-Birkenau as “quite depressing.”

“I go back and forth⁶ about how much further I’m going to research these manuscripts,” Hall said.

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

museum – n. a building in which interesting and valuable things (such as paintings and sculptures or scientific or historical objects) are collected and shown to the public

manuscript – n. the original copy of a play, book, piece of music, etc., before it has been printed

arrange - v. to organize

audience – n. the people who attend a performance

software – n. the programs that run on a computer and perform certain functions

1 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 ensemble   

n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果

参考例句：

• We should consider the buildings as an ensemble.我们应把那些建筑物视作一个整体。
• It is ensemble music for up to about ten players,with one player to a part.它是最多十人演奏的合奏音乐，每人担任一部分。

4 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

5 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。