The discovery and restoration of musical scores found at Auschwitz has brought to light a remarkable story of resilience and hope. The scores, which were arranged and played by orchestras at the camp, were discovered by a young British composer named Leo Geyer during a visit to Auschwitz in 2015. Geyer has since painstakingly restored fragments of the scores and now perform them with his orchestra in London.
An orchestra at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London performed part of ‘The Orchestras of Auschwitz’ on Monday. This opera ballet, created by Geyer, uses fragments of music and stories from the survivors of the death camp.
The discovery of these scores is a testament to the power of music to transcend even the darkest of times. Despite the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust, the prisoners at Auschwitz found solace and hope in music. Most concentration camps had some form of an orchestra made up of prisoners playing whatever instruments were available to them. The orchestras at Auschwitz were sanctioned by the SS and in some cases commissioned by them. They were quite small and had a bizarre hodgepodge of instruments, including accordions and saxophones, which were not featured in traditional orchestras.
The scores discovered at Auschwitz are a poignant reminder of the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity. They are a testament to the power of music to bring hope and comfort in even the darkest of times. The restoration of these scores is a fitting tribute to the prisoners who played and composed them, and a reminder of the importance of preserving the memory of the Holocaust for future generations.
