The Lost Music
The ILMC Foundation recovers, studies, and restores to the world musical works created in extreme conditions by prisoners, deportees, and internees, which were lost with the liberation of the Camps.
ILMC Foundation
In 2014 Francesco Lotoro founded the ILMC Foundation (Institute of Concentrationary Musical Literature) based in Barletta.
The ILMC Foundation is dedicated to the research, study, cataloging, recording, publishing, and performance of this musical literature.
Lotoro's lifelong mission goes far beyond mere notes on a score: it's about restoring dignity to the countless musicians who, even in the face of despair and death, poured their souls into music—whether written in notebooks, toilet paper, burlap sacks, postcards, or even simply memorized during dramatic train journeys to unknown destinies.
Although many of these musicians tragically lost their lives, their music lives on.
Preserving this music means granting them an eternal legacy.
Archive
Music gave voice to those who could not speak.
We make sure that voice is not forgotten
Music sheets
More than 8,000 scores and separate parts, published or unpublished, on paper or in digital copies, recovered during research trips.
Documents
12,500 documents on music production in concentration camps from 1933 to 1953 (digital files, diaries, notes, music books).
Recordings
27 CDs of concentration camp music that ensure the preservation of this unique repertoire, giving it a renewed voice.
Microfilm
Precious testimonies are meticulously archived on microfilm, safeguarding them from the corrosive effects of time.
Publications
Over 3,000 publications documenting concentration camp music production from 1933 to 1953.
Interviews
Hundreds of hours of recordings capturing meetings with survivors and their heirs.