Songwriting - the holocaust

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biggestlou

Greenlighter
Joined
Dec 8, 2018
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8
Hi there,
I'm looking for some help and input from anyone on a very sensitive subject matter i.e. the Holocaust. I've to write a song on the matter and perform it live as part of my coursework for college. I tend to be stronger in writing the music and struggle with lyrics so as you can imagine this has become quite difficult and I am struggling to get anything worthy down and my performance is fast approaching. Long story short - if there is anyone who could take the time to share any ideas or thoughts I would be very very grateful.

Thanks, L x
 
the detainees also played and composed music on their own initiative, for themselves and their fellow inmates. Here, music served as a cultural survival technique and as a means of psychological resistance: it helped overcome the life-threatening situation at the camp and assisted in alleviating the terror. Simple humming or whistling could combat fear and loneliness in solitary confinement. Music helped inmates retain their identity and traditions, counteracting the SS’s destructive intention, which was directed not only towards the prisoners’ physical existence but also towards their culture.

Prisoners played music for themselves even in the early concentration camps. However, there were only a few instrumental groups at that time. Group, solo and unaccompanied singing of various songs the inmates brought into the camps was predominant. The first Lagerlieder(camp songs) and KZ-Hymnen (concentration camp anthems), like the well-known 'Moorsoldatenlied' (Song of the Peat Bog Soldiers), were written by the inmates. These songs could be sung at any time and required little practice or preparation. Group singing sessions produced a sense of companionship and belonging. In the initial phases of the camp system, the dominant styles were amateur music from the youth and blue-collar movements, because most of the prisoners at that time were political opponents of the Nazis. During these initial years, professional musicians were the exception. Starting in 1939, after the beginning of World War II, the level of musical skills and diversity expanded. From that point on, more and more prisoners from various countries and social classes were deported to the camps, among them a higher percentage of professional musicians, artists and intellects. The increase in the number of prisoners also expanded the scope of musical events, and the different national traditions reflected by the inmates began to enhance musical life at the camps.
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-From: http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/


Langhoff, on "Song of the Peat Bog Soldiers":

"Couldn’t you write a song that we could all sing together in the camp? See, it can’t be a song that the SS could never ban. It should relate to our camp and to our families back home. You know, like a song from home, but not so kitschy like ‘I would love to go back home.’ ‘Sure, I could do something like that,’ the comrade carefully responded. ’I will set myself to it and then bring the lyrics to you in your barracks within the week."


"Peat Bog Soldiers is one of Europe's best-known protest songs. It exists in countless European languages, became a Republican anthem during the Spanish Civil War; was a symbol of resistance during the Second World War, and is popular with the Peace movement today. What makes it perhaps so poignant is the knowledge that is was written, composed and first performed in 1933 in a Nazi concentration camp by the prisoners themselves.
Amongst others, this song was recorded by the German folk musician Hannes Wader. The English version given here is a shortened one with only three verses of the original six."




 
Sorry what?

Thanks for the replies - I have been extremely busy.
I have written the song now. Thanks for the inspiration! Emotional stuff. I ended up not addressing it directly and the lyrics have a double meaning.
 
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