Future Memories: Lotoro's journey in search of music written in concentration camps arrives in Israel

Francesco Lotoro con Hilde Zimche Grünbaum

Francesco Lotoro's journey in search of music composed in concentration camps and other places of civilian and military captivity around the world between 1933 and 1953 stopped in Israel this time. The project "Future Memories: Lotoro's Journey to Save the Lost Music," of which this journey is also part, is promoted by the Fondazione Istituto di Letteratura Musicale Concentrazionaria ETS and supported by the Claims Conference (New York), the Puglia Region, the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe (London), the Righteous Persons Foundation (Los Angeles), and the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (Paris) . The journey was undertaken together with Donatella Altieri , head of management of the ILMC Foundation.

The first destination was Jerusalem , where Yad Vashem requested the digital scanning of 40 folders of music files. There were thousands of pages to be scanned, so it was agreed to acquire some of the 40 files and have the remaining material shipped.

In the pictures: Francesco Lotoro in Israel, with Hilde Zimche Grunbaum, with Dita Kraus, 2 youthful photos of Hilde Zimche Grünbaum and Dita Kraus

Lotoro and Altieri then reached Kibbutz Netser Sereni to meet Hilde Zimche Grünbaum , a Jewish copyist of the Birkenau women's orchestra directed by Alma Rosè; the goal was to recover a sheet of music written by Hilde in Birkenau, but it had been donated to Yad Vashem, so it was possible to obtain a scanned copy.

The next day they went to Natanya to meet the Jewish writer and painter Dita Kraus , who had been deported to Theresienstadt and Birkenau. Since Kraus remembered by heart songs and nursery rhymes created in Theresienstadt, they were recorded (Kraus also donated one of her paintings to the ILMC Foundation).