The characters in the production are based on the following: Tadeusz Borowski, a Polish Deputy Kapo who was forced to work in the gas chambers. Maria Rundo, a partisan fighter, Borowski’s girlfriend and later his wife. Micheline Maurel, author of Ravensbruck, an account of Ravensbruck concentration camp, who wrote from behind the barbed wire, the words Be Happy – millions of people envy you. Arnold Daghani, one of the great unsung painters of the 20th century, and Nanino Daghani, his wife and supporter. They were the sole survivors of Mikhailowka Forced Labour Camp and later, emigrated to the UK, becoming residents of Hove. Joan is a fictional character created to represent the refugees of Darfur. She comes to live in Brighton and her story tells the stories of many refugees and, in a way, of so many other genocides.

Although the characters are based on real people, the words they speak and sing are drawn from many sources, including their own inspirational texts.

Arnold Daghani

‘The Keep’ archive page on Arnold Daghani  ( Artist referenced above by Bill Smith)

Reviews

“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

A totally unique performance.

Introduction – the Review

(content originally from http://worldwar2poetry.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-life-and-death-orchestra.html )

The work of The Life and Death Orchestra in commemorating the Holocaust is both  impressive and innovative  Two projects worthy of note are firstly  the CD ‘Songs for the  Betrayed World’ (2000) .Composed by Bill Smith & Bim Sinclair and  credited to the ‘The Life & Death Orchestra Featuring Angi Mariani & Herbie Flowers’, the CD  interprets both Holocaust related poetry and prose . The poets featured include Yehuda Amichai, Tadeusz Borowski, Czeslaw Milosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Hilda Schiff, Elie Wiesel, and Adam Zych. The music is quite something else, strangely alluring. Elements of cabaret, early tango, brooding  Jazz, with the occasional uplifting track such as ‘Us Two ‘ whilst ‘ Never’ confronts the whole horror of the Death Camps and the loss of faith in the benevolence of humanity . After a few listens to the work of The Life and Death Orchestra, strange to find oneself singing along to some of their songs. But challenging, thoughtful , and it is great to have a focus on lesser known work.

And then there is the opera ‘This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen’ , partly  based on Tadeusz Borowski’s recollections of being a prisoner in both Dachau and Auschwitz as published in 1947 : Borowski (born 1922)  had been writing poetry whilst living underground during the German occupation, associated with the Resistance, and  was arrested on 25th February 1943. His partner Maria  Rundo, a Resistance fighter was also taken , and she was sent to Birkenau. Both survived, were re-united and married in 1946, living in Warsaw then travelling to France and Germany and back to Poland.  Borowski turned to Communism, and to writing about his experiences as a prisoner. In 1951 he died in unexplained circumstances most likely by suicide,after learning that a friend has been arrested and tortured by the new Communist regime of Poland.Some of Borowski’s most remarkable work concerns the love poetry he wrote whilst in the camps.

The Sun of Auschwitz (extract)  Tadeusz Borowski

“I remember
your smile as elusive
as a shade of the colour of the wind,
a leaf trembling on the edge
of sun and shadow, fleeting
yes always there. So you are
for me today,in the seagreen
sky, the greenery and
the leaf-rustling wind. I feel
you in every shadow, every movement
and you put the world around me
like your arms.  I feel the world
as your body, you look into my eyes
and call me with the whole world”

(Translation that appears in ‘The Auschwitz Poems’ 1999)

The CD ‘ Songs of the Betrayed World ‘ interpretation  can be listened to Here

A personal favourite is Paul Celan ‘s ‘Deathfuge’ . The bitter ironic lyrics lend themselves well to a song and can be heard here  Reminds one of Brecht and Weill. Paul Celan  (1920-1970) was from a German Jewish family who were living in Romania . Celan was had to serve 18 months forced labour before escaping,  his parents both died in the camps. A poet, translator and lecturer in Paris after the War ended, Celan took his own life in 1970 after a severe bout of depression.

‘Deathfuge’  (extract)

“Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening
we drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night
we drink and we drink
we shovel a grave in the air there you won’t feel toocramped
A man lives in the house he plays with his vipers he writes
he writes when it grows dark to Deutschland your golden hair Margeurite
he writes it and steps out of doors and the stars are all  sparkling he whistles his hounds to come close
he whistles his Jews in rows has them a shovel a grave  in the ground
he orders us strike up and play for the dance. …..”

(Translation as appears in ‘The Auschwitz Poems’ ,1999)

Finally Tadeusz Rozewicz poem ‘Pigtail’ , already covered by this blog for  Holocaust Memorial Day also adapts well to music and The Life and Death Orchestra’s version is  available here

Interview with Bill Smith via email April 12th 2020

Have you had feedback from Holocaust survivors and/or from relatives of those who died in the Holocaust about the work of the Life and Death Orchestra?

When we first performed as the Life and Death Orchestra many survivors came in the audience. We have since met many survivors and their relatives and all were grateful for what we had produced.

It is noticeable that you have used the written word of some writers who were not directly caught up in the Holocaust, such as Adrian Mitchell ( 1932-2008) and Adam Zych ( born 1945) . What would you say in response to those who claim that it is impossible to write adequately about the Camps, or war in general, unless the writer has had first hand experience?

I don’t agree with that. If you believed that you would have no art. Adrian Mitchell writes from the heart and understands what happened. Adam Zych was one of the principal curators of the Auschwitz Museum and we went there to meet him. He’s a great composer too.

In the performance of the Opera in 2007, there is a section about Darfur , and also references to the Katyn forest massacre. The Opera shows Tadeusz Borowski’s bitter disillusionment with Communism after surviving the German Death Camps. The CD has a track about the singer Victor Jara murdered by Chilean fascist in 1973. How far do you think that connections can be made with the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity?

The Holocaust was a unique occurrence in human history but I started to try to understand the evil that humans do so I think that there are links. Borowski and Daghani were not keen on Socialist realism !!!
To quote Arnold Daghani “If impressionism is painting what you see and expressionism painting what you feel, socialist realism is painting what you are told to see and feel.”

If there is one poem about the Holocaust that you think that readers should read, what would it be ?

‘Again ‘ by Kevin Carey and the book ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel.

What are the future plans for the Life and Death Orchestra? Any chance of staging ‘This Way to the Gas..’ again ?

We’re very hopeful that we can stage the Opera again in a significant way in 2021. We are publishing the full life cycle of song so any orchestra can play the songs. We hope to do a Life and Death Orchestra in late 2021 featuring other composers as well.

Do you think that the Allies could have intervened in some way by bombing some of the major death camps or the rail links to them?

Yes I do think that the Allies could have taken the genocide much more seriously and could have adopted measures to save millions……and the world looked on and the world looked away as we sing in our opera. Mainly our leaders !
( Bill directed me to the following article from ‘The Independent’ of  April 18th 2017 titled ‘Allied forces knew about Holocaust Two Years Before The Discovery of the Concentration Camps Secret Documents Reveal ‘ )

I wish to thank Bill for his time. 

Felt appropriate to end with some lines from ‘Again ‘ by Kevin Carey

“Since then My Lai
Kampuchea, paralysis
in the face of ethnic cleansing. If
I have to say it. If I have to say it
again
I will say it again
for  there is no such thing as compassion fatigue
only compassion forgetting. If I
have to say it
again.”

( From the booklet that accompanies the CD ‘Songs For the Betrayed World’. Originally from Kevin Carey’s poetry collection ‘Klaonica’ -which is Serbo-Croat for ‘slaughterhouse’. )

Links

The Life and Death Orchestra  website

The Links page on The Life and Death Orchestra website provides a massive guide to Holocaust research and commemoration organisations.

Never  as performed by The Life and Death Orchestra in 2007

Us Two  as performed by The Life and Death Orchestra in 2007

Tracks from Youtube selection of Life and Death Orchestra tracks -audio

Culture Poland website page on Tadeusz Borowski

‘The Keep’ archive page on Arnold Daghani  ( Artist referenced above by Bill Smith)

Recommended Reading 

‘Holocaust Poetry’, anthology edited by  Hilda Schiff  ,St Martin’s Press, 1995

‘The Auschwitz Poem’ anthology edited by Adam A. Zych, Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum 1999

 

Introduction – the album

Songs For The Betrayed World by The Life and Death Orchestra is a universally acclaimed album of Holocaust songs. “It is a masterpiece” (Metro). 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.

 

Introduction – the People’s Opera