Future Memories: Lotoro's journey in search of music written in concentration camps continues in Italy and Poland

Francesco Lotoro al Centralne Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych di Opole (Polonia)

Francesco Lotoro 's journey in search of music composed in concentration camps and other places of civilian and military captivity around the world continues in Italy and Poland . 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 Grazia Tiritiello , vice president of the ILMC Foundation.

Having reached Arezzo by train, the next day Lotoro and Tiritiello took a bus to Pieve S. Stefano (Arezzo) , home of the Piccolo Museo del Diario (Little Museum of the Diary ). They consulted and selected for scanning the diaries of interned and deported Jewish musicians such as Armando Scipioni, Gualtiero Morpurgo, Liliana Giaccari, Corrado Celada, Anna Bonifacio, Enno Mucchiutti, Giuseppe Andriolo, Gino Glisenti, Medoro Ligabue, Ille Strazza, Rocco Vitucci, Giornando Barbari, Mario Nocchi, Angelo Remorini, and Gaetano Ferrara.

In the photos: Francesco Lotoro in Pieve S. Stefano

The next day they reached Milan by train to fly again to Krakow and then reach Opole by train, home of the Centralne Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych mainly dedicated to prisoners of war and Polish civilians of all religious and social origins; we obtained a lot of musical material written in camps opened by Germany in Silesia and Romania.

In the photos: Francesco Lotoro in Opole, at the Centralne Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych

They then returned to Krakow in the evening and met Emanuel Regina , a sound engineer and English speaker, thanks to whom it was possible to make numerous reels of the trip as well as linguistic facilitation; they were also joined by the BBC who filmed for a documentary.

The next day they reached the Auschwitz Museum , where they had long since booked a series of research visits to Block 24, known for having been the rehearsal space and instrument store for the Auschwitz I Lagerkapelle from 1941 to 1944. Department head Wojciech Płosa provided lists of musicians employed in the Lagerkapell , directed by Adam Kopyciński (the official lists of the Lager authorities list 77, while the list compiled from memory by Kopyciński after the war lists 136, most of them Jews). The research took two days, but since the next day was a national religious holiday in Poland and the Auschwitz Museum Archive was closed, they returned to Auschwitz two days later and spent the holiday in Krakow visiting the Oskar Schindler Emailwarenfabrik Museum (they conducted further research on the Rosner brothers, one a violinist and the other an accordionist, who worked in Schindler's factory) and browsing open music libraries.

In the photos: Francesco Lotoro at the Auschwitz Museum and with the BBC crew; portrait by Adam Kopyciński

The travel plans included a trip to Gdańsk to scan musical materials from the Muzeum II Wojny Swiatowej , but this was not possible due to time constraints; the Museum sent most of the requested documents and musical materials via WeTransfer. In Krakow, they met again with Christof Kulisiewicz , who gave an interview to the BBC and also delivered more of his father's phonographic musical material.

After discharging Emanuel Regina, they had to return to Italy for family reasons. Forty-eight hours later, Lotoro embarked on another journey to Krakow , but this leg of the journey was undertaken with Donatella Altieri , with whom he traveled by train from Krakow to Wroclaw, where they were joined by both the BBC and Magda Widlak-Avolio of the Polish Cultural Institute in Rome, who had organized the meetings in Wroclaw. The purpose of this leg of the journey was to gather testimonies about Adam Kopyciński, the conductor of the Lagerkapelle at Auschwitz I Stammlager. At Auschwitz I, Kopyciński worked tirelessly to free the Lagerkapelle from forced labor so that they could focus on orchestral rehearsals. Under his direction, the Lagerkapelle reached a peak of 120 members. In the autumn of 1943, due to the transfers of Polish musicians deported to other camps, Kopyciński ensured that the vacancies in the staff were filled by Jewish musicians.

In the photos: Francesco Lotoro in Krakow; with Christof Kulisiewicz; in Wroclaw

This was followed by meetings with Filip Kozłowski, a scholar of Kopyciński's life; Tadeusz Zathey, a conductor and former student of Kopyciński; and Magdalena Wiącek, director of the Karola Lipiński Academy of Music in Wroclaw, where Kopyciński taught after the war.