24 | MAY 12 • 2022 

OUR COMMUNITY

A 

concert that sounds out contrasts 
defines an upcoming program 
planned by The Zekelman 
Holocaust Center (HC) in Farmington 
Hills in partnership with the University of 
Michigan (U-M) School of Music, Theatre 
& Dance.
The contrasts, presented on the after-
noon of May 22, involve the vast differences 
between the essence of the music and the 
essence of the narrative. 
While the 10 short pieces are representa-
tive of upbeat popular music composed by 
non-Jewish Germans during World War II, 
the narrative consists of published testimo-
nies about daily experiences as expressed by 
political prisoners (Jewish and non-Jewish) 
forced to arrange and perform dance band 
pieces to entertain Nazi captors at Auschwitz 
I. 
“Music From Auschwitz: A Concert” 
will feature a U-M student orchestra con-
ducted by Oriol Sans, music director of the 
Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra, who 
has worked with prestigious instrumentalists 
in the U.S. and Europe while 
holding teaching positions at 
the University of Wisconsin-
Madison and U-M. 
“
Audiences will hear what 
music at Auschwitz actually 
sounded like,
” said Patricia 
Hall, an award-winning 
author, U-M professor of 
music theory and academic 
researcher who found the 
music manuscripts at the 
Auschwitz-Birkenau State 
Museum in Poland. 
“We didn’t know what that music sounded 
like down to the specific instrumentation 
of the ensembles [until it was found in the 
archives] so I’ve written a short concert 
introduction, which I think is very necessary 
for people to understand how the program is 
structured. 
“Our vocalists will be playing the parts 
of the musicians and arrangers. They’ll be 

sitting at a table together, and it will look like 
they’re copying music as they recite their 
lines. Even though it’s explained in the pro-
gram, I thought it would be helpful for me to 
explain that context.
” 
Hall’s interest in the music (foxtrots, tan-
gos and waltzes) as well as testimonies by 
surviving musicians was motivated by the 
book Music of Another World 
by Szymon Laks, a conduc-
tor of the men’s orchestra at 
Auschwitz-Birkenau I.
“Laks described an odd 
notation that he resorted to 
because so many members 
of his ensemble would sud-
denly be missing,
” Hall said. 
“Members would be killed 
by the SS or they would die 
of illness, and he had to con-
stantly substitute in parts to 
make up for these missing members.
”
Hall, who felt emotionally connected 
to the music because of the tremendous 
irony, made her first visit to the collections 
of the Auschwitz-Birkenau 
State Museum in 2016 as 
she became curious about 
whether there might be any 
manuscripts there.
The first studied piece, 
“The Most Beautiful Time 
of Life,
” premiered in 2018 at 
U-M, and it got vast media 
attention.
Hall was interviewed way 
beyond radio stations in Ann 
Arbor, answering questions 
for National Public Radio and the Canadian 
Broadcasting Corp., a conversation shared 
with the British Broadcasting Corp. An 
Associated Press article about her research 
appeared in more than 1,100 news outlets in 
22 countries. 
The foxtrot that premiered in 2018 
has just been part of a film that debuted 
on Holocaust Remembrance Day — The 
Survivor, a Barry Levinson film about Harry 

Haft, who took part in boxing matches at 
Auschwitz (see review on page 54).
 “In 2019, I decided to go back to the 
archive and find more pieces so we could do 
an entire program of this repertoire,
” Hall 
said about the concert to be presented in 
Ann Arbor days before being performed at 
the HC.
“
As soon as we heard 
about the amazing discovery 
of these pieces, we reached 
out to U-M about hosting a 
concert,
” said Sarah Saltzman, 
HC director of events and 
public relations. “To offer this 
program to an audience that 
understands its significance is 
incredibly special.
” 
Hall considers the text a 
critical component because 
she believes audiences should 
know the details of the daily lives of the 
musicians. The addition of testimony was 
the suggestion of her U-M colleague, Eugene 
Rogers, director of choral activities, who 
said the music needed context as soon as he 
heard it. 
“The narrative is from the very beginning 
in 1940 and early 1941, when they began 
to get an ensemble of musicians together 
in Auschwitz I, all the way to the very end, 
when these musicians were going on death 
marches in late 1944,
” Hall said. “Hearing 
these popular dance band pieces by them-
selves — some of them in isolation — seems 
almost bizarre.
” 

The Zekelman Holocaust Center hosts free concert May 22.
Music from Auschwitz

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Details
Registration is required to attend 
the free program “Music From 
Auschwitz: A Concert” to be per-
formed at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 
22, at The Zekelman Holocaust 
Center in Farmington Hills. Go to 
holocaustcenter.org/May or call 
(248) 556-2511 by Friday, May 20.

Patricia 
Hall

Oriol 
Sans

