Music 1: Introduction to Music: A Survivor from Warsaw

A Survivor from Warsaw

Please note: Course green sheets and other materials may not be updated fully until the first class meeting. Web site registration for students enrolled in these classes will be activated at that time. Please note: The course number for these sections of Introduction to Music was recently changed from Music 1 to Music 1A. As I work to update the online course materials the old course number may continue to appear in some places even though the information does refer to Music 1A.

Arnold Schoenberg

1947

I cannot remember everything. I must have been unconscious most of the time; I remember only the grandiose moment when they all started to sing, as if prearranged, the old prayer they had neglected for so many years - the forgotten creed!

But I have no recollection how I got underground to live in the sewers of Warsaw so long a time.

The day began as usual. Reveille when it still was dark - get out whether you slept or whether worries kept you awake the whole night: you had been separated from your children, from your wife, from your parents, you don't know what happened to them; how could you sleep?

They shouted again: "Get out! The sergeant will be furious!" They came out; some very slow, the old ones, the sick men, some with nervous agility. They fear the sergeant. They hurry as much as they can. In vain! Much too much noise, much too much commotion and not fast enough!

The Feldwebel shouts: "Achtung! Still gestanden! Na wird's mal, oder soll ich mit dem Gewehrkolben nachhelfen? Na jut; wenn Ihr's durchaus haben wollt!" ("Attention! Stand still! How about it, or should I help you along with the butt of my rifle? All right, Jew, if you really want to have it!")

The sergeant and his subordinates hit everyone: young or old, strong or sick, guilty or innocent - it was painful to hear the groaning and moaning.

I heard it though I had been hit very hard, so hard that I could not help falling down. We all on the ground who could not stand up were then beaten over the head.

I must have been unconscious. The next thing I knew was a soldier saying, "They are all dead!" Whereupon the sergeant ordered to do away with us.

There I lay aside half conscious. It had become very still - fear and pain - Then I heard the sergeant shouting: "Abzählen!" ("Count off!")

They started slowly, and irregularly: One, two, three, four, "Achtung." The sergeant shouted again: "Rascher! Nochmals von vorn anfangen! In einer Minute will ich wissen wieviele ich zur Gaskammer abliefere! Abzählen!" ("Faster! Once more, start from the beginning! In a minute I will know how many I am going to send off to the gas chamber! Count off!")

They began again, first slowly: one, two, three, four, became faster and faster, so fast that it finally sounded like a stampede of wild horses, and all of a sudden, in the middle of it, they began singing the Shema Yisroel

Shema Yisroel Adonoy elohenoo Adonoy ehod. Veohavto es Adonoy eloheho behol levoveho oovehol nafsheho oovehaol meodeho. Vehoyoo haddevoreem hoelleh asher onohee metsavveho hayyom al levoveho. Veshinnantom levoneho vedibbarto bom beshivteho beveteho oovelehteho baddereh ovveshohbeho oovekoomeho. ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One! And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and speak of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou goest on the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.")