Memoria [EN] No. 34 (07/2020) | Page 24

Forbidden Music

On August 15th, a concert prepared by the Silesian Philharmonic will be held at the Silesian Museum's Fajrat Square, during which 3 Warsaw Polonaises by an unknown author from the XVIII century, arranged by Szymon Laks for the men's orchestra in Birkenau, will be played live for the first time. The songs were recorded last year by the New Music Orchestra under the baton of Szymon Bywalec and originally intended as part of a larger project called "Forbidden Music", which presents songs that were illegally played or created by prisoners during the functioning of the Auschwitz camp. They are primarily compositions by Polish and Jewish artists, as both performers and listeners were severely punished for playing and listening to their works. However, "to cheer the hearts," and at the risk of their lives, such compositions were performed in Auschwitz, and for those who had the opportunity to listen to them at the time, these were some of the most moving moments of the camp ordeal. The Warsaw Polonaises and the history of their creation are a unique example forbidden music in the camp.

Renata Koszyk

Officially, there were 11 prisoner orchestras at Auschwitz, with the main task of maximizing the pace of crossing the camp gate of the prisoner labor units by playing jumping marches, and one of them was the men's orchestra in Birkenau. The first chaplain and conductor of this orchestra was Jan Zaborski (19848), and after his death in November 1942, Franciszek Kopka (11099) took over the baton.

Although the controversial Kopka formally led the orchestra until June 1944, the outstanding Polish musician of Jewish origin, Szymon Laks, had begun to gain great influence on the functioning of the band. The orchestra gradually increased in size, the playing and sound levels of the band improved, and in addition to the Poles who dominated the initial line-up, musicians of Jewish origin from almost all European countries joined the band. The ensemble's instruments included several violins, violas, trumpets, saxophones, clarinets, accordions, a tuba helicon, saxophone, trombone, double bass, drum, plates, kettledrum and cello. The locations where the orchestra played marches and gave Sunday concerts for the SS and fellow prisoners also changed, but the band mainly played in a designated location at the exit from the men's camp. Although no photograph of the orchestra survived, the performance site is visible in a photograph taken by the SS in 1944, which is stored in the PMAB archives. Empty chairs and clearly visible music stands suggest a performance interval. Visible in the distance are the water tank and the camp kitchen building, which no longer exists today.

Szymon Laks was not only an excellent conductor, but also an outstanding orchestrator who prepared the notes for his ensemble. The marching repertoire consisted mainly of lively German compositions, but during the Sunday concerts for the SS, the band played waltzes, tangos, opera and operetta arias and music hits popular at the time, which could also be listened to by the prisoners. Occasionally, there were less formal jazz music concerts or occasional performances for dignitaries on their birthdays, for example, however, there was always one rule: it was forbidden to play music by Polish and Jewish composers. One exceptional situation, when the notes of Polish polonaises ended up in the hands of the musicians, is described by Szymon Laks in his post-war memoirs: