How can music be torturous?: music in Nazi concentration and extermination camps
TitelHow can music be torturous?: music in Nazi concentration and extermination camps
Auteur
Call numberP780.94371/003
Objectnummer11294
Plaats van uitgaveSanta Barbara, California, United States
UitgeverUniversity of California Press
Jaar van uitgave
2016
Pagina's34p.,bibliography
MateriaalLosbladig
NotesArticle from the journal 'Music and Politics' X(1) 2016
Beschrijving
States that music in concentration camps, for example in the form of forced singing, had a triple usage. Firstly, singing served as a disciplinary practice aimed at increasing prisoners’ productivity by keeping “a disciplined rhythm [that] seemed to shorten the distance between work sites and the camp” (11). It was also supposed to make a good impression on possible onlookers from outside the camp. Secondly, forced singing accompanied situations of physical torture and extended its impact: the prisoners were forced to sing in humiliating bodily positions or bad weather (14). Thirdly, it was used to humiliate specifically the German-Jewish prisoners by forcing them “to sing or play the violin while they were being tortured