The music of an Andriese in Auschwitz and a kibbutz called Buchenwald

Cosimo Di Ceglie among the most performed by the Lagerkapelle and music by Jews in defiance of the racial laws

by FRANCESCO LOTORO

In December 1940, a Lagerkapelle was assembled in Auschwitz I (photo 1) of deportees directed by Franciszek Nierychło, Kapo of the camp kitchens, and of whom the surviving musicians describe the profile of an individual as despicable as he was musically unsuited to the role; Nierychło was classified as Volksdeutsche and in 1942 conscripted into the Wehrmacht, replaced by Adam Kopyciński.

Beginning on January 6, 1941, the Lagerkapelle's rehearsals were held in the basement of Block 24, which was used as a concert hall and contained a podium and a grand piano. Having heard excellent orchestras in other camps where they had already served, and therefore motivated by a spirit of emulation and ambition for prestige, the Auschwitz I authorities incurred considerable costs to cover the purchase of new musical instruments, scores, and separate parts.

Equipped with a good selection of instruments, the Lagerkapelle numbered 80 members, including professional Polish musicians who significantly increased its artistic quality. The orchestra performed for the SS as well as privileged deportees (called Prominenten), and sometimes for common deportees. It accompanied the exit and entry of forced laborers from the camp to the rhythm of martial music. On Saturdays, it performed for the guards and on Sundays for officers, their families, and friends.

The repertoire ranged from classical to modern—in original scores or specially arranged—as well as genres and styles such as marches and dance music, light music and hit songs, saloon and drawing room music, film music and operetta melodies, classical and operatic excerpts, Latin American-inspired pieces, and original works. The Lagerkapelle's repertoire certainly included contemporary Italian music, from an interesting Fantasia on Verdi's Rigoletto to more exquisitely light and entertaining music, all the way to salon music.

Among the Italian pieces performed by the Lagerkapelle, Neapolitan music stands out, featuring works by historic composers of the genre such as Fedele Rivelli (1875-1930), Gaetano Lama (1886-1950) and Giulio de Micheli (1899-1940). Worthy of mention is the song Leila by the British-born Italian conductor Alberto Semprini (1908-1990), who in 1958 at Sanremo arranged Nel blu dipinto di blu performed by Domenico Modugno and conducted the orchestra (the song won the Festival).

Last but not least, the delightful foxtrot Oh Maria, oh Maria! by the Apulian jazz guitarist and composer Cosimo Di Ceglie (photo 2) , born in Andria on 21 October 1913 and trained in his city's band; having moved to Milan in his early twenties, he performed in the orchestra of another illustrious Andria native, Mario Latilla (father of the more famous Gino), later forming the jazz trio I tre negri with pianist Enzo Ceragioli and accordionist Gorni Kramer (Di Ceglie died in Milan on 23 August 1980).

Aside from the wave of Neapolitan music performed almost daily by the Auschwitz I orchestra, the Lagerkapelle's repertoire also stands out for its performances of music clearly inspired by African and Romani music, defying the "aesthetic" dictates and the discriminatory and pseudo-racial policies of National Socialist politics. Worthy of note are Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Zigeuner Suite, Op. 104, and the Afrikanische Suite, Op. 105, arranged by Leo Artok.

Furthermore, as you might expect, the Spanish rhapsody Festival at Sevilla by Hungarian Jew Mátyás György Seiber, who had moved to Frankfurt and emigrated to Great Britain in 1935 because of the Nuremberg Laws, is performed before an audience of cheering German officers.

In October 1944, numerous Czech, Russian and Polish musicians were transferred from Auschwitz I to the open camps in the metropolitan territory of the Reich, and the vacant positions were filled by professional Jewish musicians; this did not prevent a continuous reduction in the orchestra's ranks (combined with a high mortality and suicide rate), and in November 1944 the Lagerkapelle was completely disbanded and most of the Jewish musicians were transferred to Bergen-Belsen.

A few days ago, Hilde Zimche Gruenbaum (photo 3) , copyist of the Birkenau women's orchestra , passed away at the venerable age of 101 at Kibbutz Netser Sereni (Israel) ; my friend and Israeli director Gady Castel explained to me that the kibbutz was originally called Buchenwald since many of its founders came from the infamous concentration camp not far from Weimar.

For more or less the same reason, in 1975 in Israel some former deportees founded Beit Theresienstadt at Kibbutz Givat Chaim, which included a library, archive and education centre.

When members of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish movement sing La Marseillaise on Shabbat eve, based on a Hebrew text, they simply redeem it and bring it back to its original Jewish hearth, since part of the French anthem (already used by Giovanni Battista Viotti) comes from the chants of the Second Temple in Jerusalem; names of concentration camps like "Ravensbrück" or "Auschwitz" in chants created during deportation, rather than evoking their tragedy, are regenerated and sound almost pleasing to the ear.

Thanks to the healing power of music, singing the name of a concentration camp brings us incredibly close to that reality, so much so that we can correct it; if it's true that the human mind creates what is real, today we can repair the crumbling bridges and beams of human thought.

Alternatively, we can even call a kibbutz “Buchenwald”.