Download the 'This Way for the Gas' brochure (pdf) See This Way for the Gas Ladies & Gentlemen by the Life & Death Orchestra at the Udderbelly - May 22nd - 27th at 7pm. Tickets available on 01273 709709 or at udderbelly.co.uk Watch 'End Song' performed live: Get the Flash Player to see this player.

If any groups or orchestras anywhere in the world want to perform the whole or parts of this work, we have available a complete transcription of the album, plus a new orchestral score produced by Dominic Nunns, one of the UK's leading young orchestrators and conductors.  Please contact us for details.

Songs For The Betrayed World by The Life and Death Orchestra is a universally acclaimed album of Holocaust songs. "It is a masterpiece" (Metro) - click here to buy a copy of the album. It is based on the words of Holocaust poets and
writers such as Tadeusz Borowski, Tadeusz Rozewicz, Paul Celan, Elie
Wiesel, Zbigniew Herbert, Czeslaw Milosz, Nina Cassian, Reiner Kunze,
Micheline Maurel, Adam Zych, Yehuda Amichai, Kevin Carey and Adrian
Mitchell.

The work covers the genocide of Jews in the concentration camps of
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbruck, Buchenwald and Dachau amongst
many others; murder perpetrated by the Nazis led by Hitler, Himmler,
Goebbels and Eichmann.
It links the horrors of the Holocaust to ethnic cleansing perpetrated
elsewhere such as My Lai, Kampuchea, Bosnia, Kosovo and also Chile
where the story of Victor Jara is told.

The composers and main performers of The Life and Death Orchestra are
Bill Smith, Bim Sinclair, Angi Mariani and Herbie Flowers. Herbie Flowers
is best known as the "world's greatest bass player". Like Schindler's List
or Life is Beautiful, this is a controversial work. The most moving song,
This Way For The Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, adapted from the short
story by Tadeusz Borowski, depicts an ordinary but horrific day in the gas
chambers detailing the zyklon B, the cruelty of the SS, the transports, the
summary executions, and the slaughter.

The guilt of the survivors is shown. As Tadeusz Borowski said, the world is
ruled by neither justice nor morality; the world is ruled by power. In the
accompanying booklet, the works of main Holocaust writers and artists
are shown, including the works of Arnold Daghani, Ralph Freeman, Donald
Woodman, Gerda Weissman Klein, Primo Levi, Gary Sea, Ursula Goetze,
Eva Fogelman. The Poetry of Survival edited by Daniel Weissbort is also a
key text.

Based on the words of Holocaust survivors and poets, The Life & Death
Orchestra performs Songs For The Betrayed World, composed by Bill
Smith and Bim Sinclair.

"One of the most incredible, moving and important pieces of work I've ever come across in my entire life"  Big George, BBC Radio

"It is a masterpiece"
- Metro

5 stars
"The songs are rich and intense, musically reminiscent of Bob Dylan's best work. It lives long in the memory, one of the most moving and enriching shows..." The Scotsman

5 stars Unmissable
"The songs are hauntingly beautiful and will linger in the mind long after the performance is over. It must be one of the most tragic and moving shows in the Festival" - Edinburgh Guide

"Epic and Powerful" - The Jewish Telegraph

"It's quite an album, very different & unlike anything I've heard before" -
Tim Jeffery, Skint Records

"Overwhelming" - Herbie Flowers

"Very moving - a powerful piece" - Anthony Stiles, Cameron Mackintosh Ltd

"...astonishing as a piece of music and performed live, equally moving as a piece of theatre." - Jewish Chronicle

"It's a highly charged score, reminiscent of works by John Barry, Kurt Weill, and even Nick Cave. With song titles such as 'This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen', it certainly pulls no punches" - New Insight Magazine

"Powerful, moving and challenging" - Greater Manchester Black and Jewish Forum

"A musical interracial marriage of people's opera, and Eastern folk, with classy tinges of Jacques Brel, "Songs.." is an album which looks back at the Holocaust in anger...a beautiful if disturbing result" - George Berger, Rock n Reel Magazine

"Shocking, harrowing, yet ultimately uplifting, Songs For The Betrayed Word is indisputably outstanding" - Oz Dhammi, Sussex Jewish News

"An intense journey through post-Holocaust literature...impressive and excellent" - The Latest

A totally unique performance.

The icons and artwork at the top are based on the work by great UK artist, Ralph Freeman from the work, Rosina & Carlos IV (1940) - 1997 mixed media on canvas.

All site content (c) The Life & Death Orchestra, 2000.

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