Ghetto swingers

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The Ghetto Swingers were a prisoner orchestra at the time of National Socialism . As a jazz combo that have been Ghetto Swingers in Theresienstadt ghetto founded by jazz trumpeter Erich Vogel in January 1943 and developed in the spring of 1944 to a modern Swing - big band . The Ghetto Swingers were composed of Jewish prisoner musicians and performed exclusively in the camp area. Appearances by the ghetto swingers were influenced by Nazi propagandaused for the presentation of Theresienstadt as a "model ghetto" in order to refute the accusation of persecution of the Jews. In autumn 1944, most of the band members were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , only a few of these Theresienstadt ghetto musicians survived the war .

Band formation, performances and repertoire

On January 8, 1943, the Czech jazz trumpeter Eric (Erich) Vogel applied to the leisure activities department of the Jewish ghetto self-government in Theresienstadt to found a jazz combo after well-known jazz musicians had been sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto.

“I inform you that I intend to go public with a jazz orchestra that will mainly play Jewish music. The orchestra would perform under the title Die (The) Ghetto Swingers. I would be grateful if your music advisor would contact me so that I could inform him in detail about our intentions and wishes. "

- Erich Vogel in January 1943 to the leisure activities department of the Jewish self-government in the Theresienstadt ghetto

After Vogel's application to found a jazz band was granted, the ghetto swingers played in various line- ups in front of fellow prisoners, mainly in the coffeehouse and the bandstand of the ghetto. The repertoire of the ghetto band included jazz music from Count Basie to Duke Ellington, which was ostracized under the National Socialists . The jazz track " I Got Rhythm " by George Gershwin became the signature tune of the ghetto swingers . There is still a recording of the swing piece “ Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen ”, which is particularly popular with the Theresienstadt prisoners , which may have been made by the ghetto swingers . The Ghetto Swingers were the best-known jazz band in the assembly camp, there were also two other top-class jazz combos.

Band members

The Ghetto Swingers were initially led by the clarinetist and saxophonist Fritz Weiss . In the course of 1944, the jazz pianist Martin Roman, who had been transferred to Theresienstadt from the Westerbork transit camp, temporarily took over the management of the ghetto swingers . He was also musical director of Kurt Gerron's carousel cabaret . Under Roman, the ghetto swingers changed from a jazz quintet to a modern big band. The band included u. a. Fritz Taussig (trombone), Erich Vogel (trumpet), Fritz Goldschmidt (guitar) and the guitarist Coco Schumann , who was the drummer for the Ghetto Swingers .

“The art, the music, the game served as a direct, simple and comfortable escape from the terrible everyday life in the camp. Only what the prisoners brought with them was used: their skills and tools. I was a prime example. When I played I forgot where I was. The world seemed fine, the suffering of the people around me disappeared - life was beautiful. [...] We were a 'normal' band with a 'normal' audience. We knew everything and at the same moment forgot everything for a few bars of music. We played for and for our lives - like everyone else in this 'city', this cruel, mendacious set design for theater performances, children's operas, cabaret, scientific lectures, sporting events, for an absurd social life and a bizarre self-managed survival in the queue in front of the ovens Third Reich. "

- Coco Schumann on the fading out of the camp reality of the ghetto swingers

Instrumentalization in Nazi propaganda

In order to counter the rumors about Nazi persecution of Jews circulating abroad, appearances of the ghetto swingers were ordered by the Nazis in the "model ghetto" Theresienstadt and instrumentalized for their purposes. These staged performances of ostracized jazz music were intended to deceive the world public about the Holocaust : On the one hand, the ghetto swingers had to appear before a commission of the International Committee of the Red Cross on June 23, 1944 . On the other hand, they were also in some scenes of the Nazi propaganda film Theresienstadt. To see a documentary film from the Jewish settlement area . For this performance, the band was given fresh white shirts and the musicians each had to wear a clearly visible Star of David.

End of the band

After the forced participation in the Nazi propaganda film, most of the band members were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in autumn 1944 . Only four members of the Ghetto Swingers survived the Holocaust , including Vogel, Schumann and Roman.

literature

  • Martin Lücke: Jazz in totalitarianism: a comparative analysis of the politically motivated handling of jazz during the time of National Socialism and Stalinism , Lit, Berlin / Hamburg / Münster 2004, ISBN 978-3-825-87538-1 (= popular music and Jazz in derforschung , Volume 10, also dissertation at the University of Münster 2003).
  • Milan Kuna: Music at the limit of life. Musicians from Bohemian countries in National Socialist concentration camps and prisons (original title: Hudba na hranici života, translated by Eliška Nováková and edited by Michael Schmitt and Martin Weinmann). 2nd edition, Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-86150-260-7 .
  • Wolfgang Muth : Music behind barbed wire. Swing in Ghetto and KZ , in: Bernd Polster (Hrsg.): Swing Heil Jazz in National Socialism , Transit, Berlin 1989, pages 211-220, ISBN 3-88747-050-8 .
  • Coco Schumann: The ghetto swinger. A jazz legend told , recorded by Max Christian Graeff and Michaela Haas, 7th edition, dtv Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-423-24107-6 .
  • Peter Köhler: The ghetto swingers in the Theresienstadt concentration camp . In: Annette Hauber, Ekkehard Jost, Klaus Wolbert, Institut Mathildenhöhe (Stadtmuseum Darmstadt), Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt: That's jazz, the sound of the 20th century: an exhibition of the city of Darmstadt , Die Stadt, 1988, p. 389 ff. / Bochinsky , Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-923639-87-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted in: Martin Lücke: Jazz im Totalitarismus: a comparative analysis of the politically motivated handling of jazz during the time of National Socialism and Stalinism , Berlin-Hamburg-Münster 2004, p. 119.
  2. ↑ Georg Mülenhöver: The Disco Phenomenon: History of Club Culture and Popular Music , Dohr, 1999, p. 23.
  3. ^ Dotschy Reinhardt : Gypsy: The story of a large Sinti family , Scherz Verlag GmbH, 2008, p. 126; Guido Fackler ( Between (musical) resistance and propaganda - jazz in the "Third Reich" , p. 468, note 40), on the other hand, attributes the recording to the Hans Feith Band.
  4. ↑ Rudolf M. Wlaschek: Biographia Judaica Bohemiae , Volume 1, delivery, Research Center East Central Europe, p. 178.
  5. ^ Coco Schumann: The Ghetto Swinger. A jazz legend told , recorded by Max Christian Graeff and Michaela Haas, Munich 1997, p. 65 f.
  6. ↑ a b Guido Fackler: Between (musical) resistance and propaganda - Jazz in the “Third Reich” (PDF; 1.6 MB), revised and unabridged version of the lecture on September 25, 1992 in Weimar