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Tania Przywara
Professor T. Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1102-003
9 November 2015
Research Review: Music in the Holocaust
Music has a very powerful effect on the human psyche. Musics power is highly
fascinating, especially when investigated within the context of something as devastating as the
Holocaust. Thus, the inquiry topic which I have chosen to research is the role of music in the
Holocaust. More specifically, I have been investigating musics role from the point of view of
the Jews who were prisoners. I am interested in how Jewish musicians felt about playing music
in order to survive the Holocaust and how music they heard or participated in affected them.
Through my research so far I have discovered that music took on a multitude of different
roles in the Holocaust. Music became a spiritual coping mechanism, a method of
communication and bonding between prisoners, and a way of honoring the memory of family
members. Additionally, music played the vital role of enabling survival, as musical ability was
often the sole reason for the Germans to not kill a particular Jew.
In researching my topic of music in the Holocaust using online electronic resources, I
discovered a source entitled Playing to live: Pianist survived Holocaust by performing for
Nazis. This 2012 source is written by Moni Basu and is found on the website cnn.com.
Playing to live: Pianist survived Holocaust by performing for Nazis is a news article
about one particular woman whose ability as a pianist enabled her to live through the Holocaust.
Zhanna Arshanskaya Dawson is the pianist whose story this is about. The article covers her life
from when she first began playing piano at 5 years old, to her hopes to study at the local music

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conservatory, to the day German soldiers invaded her home and made her family leave. The
article states that the only possession she was able to take with her was the sheet music sitting on
her piano- Chopins "Fantasy Impromptu." The article continues the story of Dawson by talking
about how she was offered a job entertaining the Germans after a piano tuner heard her playing.
Dawson played for the enemy for years, with music being the only spot of beauty in that bleak
atmosphere. The article also covers how, when the war finally ended, Dawson had a concert
arranged to play for her own people and how special that day was.
There are several quotes found in the source Playing to live: Pianist survived Holocaust
by performing for Nazis which I find relevant to my inquiry topic of musics role in the
Holocaust. The first quote which I would like to discuss is Dawsons statement, I was playing
for the memory of my parents. I was playing to survive. I think that this quote is important
because it shows the mindset of Dawson and about how she viewed her situation and role as a
musician in the Holocaust. Playing music for the enemy was not only about being obedient and
following the Nazis orders to provide musical entertainment. Obviously, prisoners if musicians
wanted to be spared from a sure death, they would need to follow these orders. Still, despite this
harsh reality, music could not help but be imbued with deep, heartfelt meaning. With Dawson,
we see that playing music had to do with honoring her beloved parents, as well as not giving up
on life.
We obtain more valuable insight into musics role and what is was like being a musician
in the Holocaust from another quote by Dawson. In this quote, Dawson states, We [musicians]
were a precious commodity for the Germans. We were more valuable alive than dead. I think
that this quote is important to my research because it explains very well how musicians were
viewed and treated by the Germans in the Holocaust. They were treated, not as human beings

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with feelings and needs, but as living commodities. If they could provide entertainment when
requested, then they had a right to live. Otherwise, they had no reason to not be promptly killed
like the thousands of other Jews. This demonstrates the brutality and heartlessness of the
Holocaust, and by stark contrast, makes the beauty of the music that was played and heard all the
more special.
The last quote from Dawson that I think is important to my inquiry topic of musics role
in the Holocaust is a statement in regards to the day she played for her own people after the
wars end: "This was a celebration. It was the only time I didn't care how I played. I thought
again of what my father said. 'Just live.' Just play." I find this significant to my research because
it shows that, as a musician playing music to survive the Holocaust, Dawson must have put a lot
of attention into the quality of her playing, so as to be sure to satisfy the Germans. However,
when she was reunited with her own people, music became not so much a test of her abilities to
satisfy others but a means of connecting spiritually with others. Music was again a way of
expressing shared joy. I think this again demonstrates the multitude of roles that music can take
on, but how, no matter what that role is, the music never stops being beautiful.
Another source I discovered on my inquiry topic is entitled Honoring 'Our Will To Live':
The Lost Music Of The Holocaust. This 2013 source is written by Sylvia Poggioli and is found
on the website npr.org.
Honoring 'Our Will To Live': The Lost Music Of The Holocaust is a source which is
about an Italian pianist, musicologist, and music teacher named Francesco Lotoro. Lotoro has
been on a decades-long mission to recover music that was composed by prisoners in Holocaust
camps before and during the time of World War II. On this project to find and resurrect the
music of these deceased prisoners, Lotoro has found thousands of songs, symphonies, and operas

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written in concentration, labor and POW camps in Germany and elsewhere before and during
World War II. By rescuing compositions written in imprisonment, Lotoro wants to fill the hole
left in Europe's musical history and show how even the horrors of the Holocaust could not
suppress artistic inspiration. He wants to show to the world that art and the human spirit can
prevail despite death and brutality. Finding and resurrecting this lost music is a profound
undertaking of Lotoro.
There are several quotes found in the source Honoring 'Our Will To Live': The Lost
Music Of The Holocaust which I find relevant to my inquiry topic. The first quote which I
would like to discuss deals with how Lotoro believes that whenever a human being is deported
and imprisoned, music is created. He says. I think [music] is an almost automatic response to a
situation of detention," says Lotoro. "They wanted to leave a testament; they leave to us music."
I think that this is important because it helps to explain the feelings behind the music of the
prisoners in camps. This quote shows that the prisoners did not want to just experience the
Holocaust brutality and not have anything to show for it. They wanted to have some sort of
meaning for all of it, and they were able to get some meaning out of it by composing and playing
music that sprung from the experience of the Holocaust. Music expresses emotions of all types,
and through this type of medium, a profound testament to the human spirit amid the Holocaust
suffering could be achieved.
Another quote of Lotoros discusses the prisoners and the type of music that they often
created in the camps. He says, For them, time had pretty much stopped at the time of their
incarceration, and music became a great escape hatch for them. "There are really hundreds, if
not thousands of topical songs, original songs, in the style of light music, cabaret music, and so
this is what these young people had in their heads." This quote is important to my inquiry topic

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because it shows the thought process of the imprisoned musicians in the camps. They had to
deal with such terrible and oppressive things in the camps, and they wanted to still feel what
lightheartedness and joy was. They achieved this desire through their music. Music was able to
transport them away from the suffering all around them, and to bring a sense of happy escape to
their lives, even if for only a short while. I think this is highly important in explaining the role of
music in the Holocaust. Music served as a sort of coping mechanism for many people. From
this quote we learn that young people especially wanted this cheerful, light-hearted music to
escape to a happier place with.
A final quote from this source describes how art is involved in liberating the human spirit.
Lotoro explains, "The artist is able to separate the external situation from the creativity that
belongs to the mind, to the heart. I think that this is a profound quote because it shows how
powerful artistic expression is. Music was not just something that happened to occur as part of
the Holocaust. It was something that happened because of its incredible ability to transcend the
present circumstances of life and create the feeling of beauty and hope. Even in a brutal
concentration camp, a composer can still feel this sense of beauty in his or her heart. Through
music, these uplifting feelings can be expressed and shared with others who are also suffering.
No oppressive tyrants can take away the wonderful creativity and emotion that reside deep in the
human mind and heart.
To tie together these thoughts, I will conclude with reasons on why I chose these
particular quotes to discuss and what my experience was like responding to these quotes.
Various sources such as books and articles provide different insight into what the Holocaust was
like and how music was incorporated into the Holocaust experience. However, I chose specific
quotations from these certain sources because I feel that they effectively demonstrate in a very

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personal way what it was like to be a musician in the Holocaust. As a writer, I didnt have too
much trouble dialoguing with my sources since, being a life-long musician myself, I could easily
understand and relate to the thoughts and feelings expressed in the quotes. Above all, this
research has doubtlessly confirmed proof of the limitless power of music and the incredible
ability of the human spirit to transcend suffering through this art form.

Works Cited:
Moni Basu. Playing to live: Pianist survived Holocaust by performing for Nazis. Cnn.
Web. 9 Nov. 2015.
Sylvia Poggioli. Honoring 'Our Will To Live': The Lost Music Of The Holocaust. Npr.
Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

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Peer Response for the Research Review:

Response to Amishas Paper

1. I think that this is a very detailed and well-developed draft that meets and exceeds the
requirements of the assignment (with a total of three quotes being dialogued with).

2. I think that you are doing a great job of dialoguing with your quotations. I think that this
is a really relevant quote to your inquiry topic of questioning the experiments
justification: [w]hat made these experiments especially horrifying was that no
precautions were taken to protect the victim. No anesthetics or antiseptic techniques were
used. All of these experiments were excruciatingly painful. This really helps prove your
viewpoint.

3. Your ideas are very well-presented and I do not see you falling short on the requirements
of the assignment at all. However, some constructive advice I would give is related to
grammatical aspects of your writing. There are some sentences with minor technical
errors or punctuation choices that I would change were this my paper. (Im sure you can
re-read your paper and find these places yourself, but I can just show you some examples
in case it helps.)

Examples:
(Page 1):

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-There are some chapter [chapters] that cover current human rights abuses, including Holocaust
denials, modern genocide, and human trafficking, enabling readers to contrast present and past
[Id probably say past and present since the past comes first] events.
- Some chapters shed a modern light on the events of the Holocaust, exploring human rights
abuses that continue even today, including Holocaust Denials; genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda,
and Sudan; and child slavery and human trafficking [Id probably just use commas instead of
semicolons here].
- Birkenau was known to be the concentration camp, where majority of the medical laboratories
were housed [I dont think you need a comma separating camp and where.]
(Page 2):
-This informs us that not all the experimenters [you dont need an apostrophe there] were
professional doctors, which adds to the inhumanity of the experiments conducted.
- The data that was collected was not done by legal means (by the hands of professionals), which
makes what happened, [comma after happened could be removed] all the more appalling.
(Page 3):
- They say there was a purpose to these experiments, but what purpose, when it comes with a price
[This is sentence is asking a question, so you could end it with a question mark].

-A price that these innocent prisoners had to give, whether it be death, or years of living with these
trauma inducing memories for the rest of their years [This is an incomplete sentence, and Id
probably say that they had to pay the price, not give the price. You could say, The price that these
experiments came with was one that these innocent prisoners had to pay, whether].

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4. I think you do very well with the Quotation Sandwich approach to utilizing source
material in this draft with the first two quotes. However, I think you could talk more about
your own thoughts on the third quote you mention.
5. I dont think you need to add more information. You could just elaborate on your own
thoughts on the third quote as just mentioned. As a reader, that would help me to
understand how you think the quote supports your viewpoint on the topic of experiment
justification.

Good Job Overall!