Music of Another World Contributor(s): Laks, Szymon (Author), Kisiel, Chester A. (Translator) |
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ISBN: 0810118025 ISBN-13: 9780810118027 Publisher: Northwestern University Press OUR PRICE: $15.79 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2000 Annotation: Rejected for publication in Poland because its portrayal of the Nazis was "too sympathetic", Music of Another World presents us with a disturbing description of a phenomenon about which little has been written: the presence of music among the crematoria of Auschwitz. Compassionate yet detached, ironic yet pitilessly honest, Szymon Laks, who became kapellmeister of the Auschwitz orchestra, recounts the inconceivable spectacle of SS guards growing teary-eyed at the sound of familiar melodies and in the next moment giving themselves up to the furies of extermination. Music led to the salvation of some; for others it led the way to the gas chambers. That Laks and others were capable of making music at Auschwitz is almost beyond belief. Yet they did so with meager resources and full knowledge of what it would mean if they did not. Music of Another World is a testament not only to the human spirit but also to the music itself, the beauty of which Laks and others honored even as the lives of so many were destroyed. He writes: Since for a long time I was a member of the orchestra at Auschwitz II and during a certain period its conductor, I regard it as my obligation to relate and in some way to commemorate this strange chapter in the history of music, a chapter that will probably not be written by any professional historian of this branch of art. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Historical - Biography & Autobiography | Music - History | Holocaust |
Dewey: B |
LCCN: 99088812 |
Series: Jewish Lives (Paperback) |
Physical Information: 0.36" H x 5.44" W x 8.67" (0.41 lbs) 138 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 1940's - Cultural Region - Eastern Europe - Ethnic Orientation - Jewish - Topical - Holocaust |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Compassionate yet detached, ironic yet pitilessly honest, Szymon Laks, the kapellmeister of the Auschwitz orchestra, presents a disturbing description of a phenomenon seldom mentioned in the literature of the Holocaust: the presence of music among the crematoria. His story is a testament to the human spirit and to music itself, the beauty of which Laks and others honored even as the lives of so many were destroyed. |