geoff: Observances were held across the world over the weekend for the annual international holocaust remembrance day. Fred de Sam Lazaro has the story of one effort to preserve and honor the music performed by prisoners in orchestras that were a fixture in the concentration camps. His report is part of our arts and culture series, canvas. ♪♪ >> This is a concert about music and jewish identity. In particular, my own. Fred: An unlikely theme perhaps in a Minneapolis lutheran church, but coming j
ust days after October 7 as violence erected in the Middle East, a timely one. >> This is a particularly painful and perilous time for all of us. ♪♪ Fred: The works performed by the minnesota-based aisles ensemble ranged widely. A Viola and piano duet, and various works highlighting jewish experience in musical influence. This string quartet by Felix Mendelson, for instance, a classic jewish folksong embedded. Then there was one medley that did not quite fit in. Or did it? Here's how it was intr
oduced. >> This music you are going to hear is utterly shocking in its banality. Heads up, it is charming cafe music. ♪♪ Fred: Banal, he added, until he -- it was performed by prisoners for the entertainment of Nazi ss guards at the camp, guards apparently briefly setting aside their loathing of the presenter musicians. >> I cannot even imagine, let's put it aside for a Sunday afternoon and we will pretend that we have this relationship that is not based on ethnic cleansing. ♪♪ Fred: Equally jar
ring, the cheerful, upbeat tempo and titles of these pieces. This tango was called, a dream of Haiti. ♪♪ to provide more context or perspective during their performance, it was punctuated by testimonies from the diaries of the prisoners. >> The slope from the crematorium really annoyed my colleagues. It was polluting the air, and it was hard to see the notes. >> It's unimaginable. Some of those quotes, I cannot see the notes but at least I get to play, meaning, I get to live another day. And the
reason I cannot see those notes, because the crematorium is bellowing smoke from dead Jews. Fred: The original manuscripts used by the Minnesota ensemble reside permanently in the museum at auschwitz today. But they were first brought out into the world if you years ago here at the university of Michigan school of music. >> I personally cannot write a manuscript that is at neat as T these are. Fred: Patricia hall is a professor of music theory. In 2018, she discovered hundreds of manuscript at
the auschwitz museum, popular German songs of the 1930's and 1940's, arranged and adapted by prisoners for the camp orchestras. >> They took the time to create a symbol of a bird out of musical symbols. Fred: In Nazi death camps, being selected to play music was a much preferred assignment, and an alternative to backbreaking labor. Still, it was a precarious existence. >> There was a particularly sadistic guard at the camp who would take prisoners out of the orchestra and take them to block 11 a
nd shoot them. So there's one anecdote of one of the musicians estimating that up to 50 musicians were executed in this way. Fred: Just on a whim of the guard watching them? >> Yeah, just a whim. You see this number, 5665. Through that number, we have this photograph. Fred: Hall selected a representative sample of 10, some with vocals, to reproduce for modern-day performance, trying to stay faithful to how they would have sounded in the camp. ♪♪ with the university ensemble, the music was perfor
med and recorded here in Ann Arbor. >> I was extremely careful about retaining exactly the instrumentation. I thought these pieces were going to sound really quirky. ♪♪ I could not believe how beautiful they sounded. I was completely surprised. Fred: Another surprise, audience reaction. She had originally planned to Sibley archive these recordings in the university's music library, figuring they would be too painful to hear. But hall says there was strong influence for subsequent constant -- con
certs. And it peaked the interest of various musicians like Ken and the isles ensemble. ♪♪ >> A lot of people I think were almost reluctant to applaud. >> I felt that too, until we stood up. I guess we should, but what are we clapping for here? Fred: In the post concert, he saw how the music had taken the audience, as he put it, to a new dimension. >> I just have chills. Playing the music would have been one thing. But playing those quotes, so you really did imagine yourself as in the camp. >> T
hat is kind of the reason I did today's concert. It was to provide context. Because you feel music before you start to think about it. ♪♪ Fred: Music drawn for this concert from the historical breadth of jewish tradition, offered as medicine to a world wracked by conflict. For the pbs "Newshour," I am Fred de Sam Lazaro. Geoff: Fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told
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