Music and the Holocaust: Culture, Identity, and Ideology

Course Description

"Music," as the saying goes, "is the most German of the Arts." For many of Germany's Jews, this classical music heritage was a core element of their own identification as German citizens, but in Nazi Germany music became a principal battleground of cultural and "racial" ideology. This course, which requires no previous knowledge of music, begins by tracing the historical position of Jews within German musical culture followed by an examination of right-wing music ideology. The central focus is on the period of Nazi rule from 1933 to 1945, during which Jews were first ejected from public musical life and finally either forced into emigration, or herded into concentration camps, including Theresienstadt, Hitler's "city for the Jews", and the notorious Auschwitz. Using the historical record, first-hand accounts, music listening, film, and readings in fiction, poetry, and drama, students examine the use and misuse of music to shape cultural identity and serve political ideology; the way in which music became an act of spiritual resistance within Nazi Germany and even within the camps; and the role of music in post-war commemorations of the Holocaust.