Sachsenhausen 1944
Lyrics and music / Testo e musica: Aleksander Kulisiewicz

For conspiring to kill a Nazi officer, the Germans sent Kulisiewicz's teenage half-sister Łucja to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1944. On learning of her imprisonment, Kulisiewicz wrote this ballad, a fantasy-compilation of childhood legends and folktales whose villains, heroes, and strange, twisting plots brought to mind aspects of his own experience of life in a concentration camp. In the song, the wolf is based on the title character of a favorite childhood tale of Kulisiewicz, Bajka o żelaznym wilku (Story of the Steel Wolf, 1911) of Wacław Sieroszewski. The dragon was a legendary nemesis of early Polish settlers. Krak was a mythical dragon-slayer and founder of Krakow. Queen Wanda succeeded to the throne upon the death of her father, Krak, but drowned herself in the Vistula River rather than marry... (Continues)

Sachsenhausen 1944
Lyrics / Testo: Aleksander Kulisiewicz

Music / Musica: Zsigmond Lajos Kertész [1876-1953] (“Szép a rózsám”, 1933)

One form of torture routinely meted out at Sachsenhausen went under the innocent name of “Sport”. “My gate” recalls a typically malicious competition devised by the SS, the “Indian Dance”. As guards barked out the moves, prisoners were forced rapidly to raise their arms, look to the sky, whirl around, drop to the ground and stand again. This sequence would be repeated over and over. Kulisiewicz reports that inmates “vomited after such 'dancing', that the entire Apellplatz [assembly area] swayed before one's eyes, and with it the damned gate of the SS command”. Kulisiewicz first heard this popular central European tune sung to the Serbo-Croatian lyric, “Moja mala nema mane”.

Una forma di tortura comminata normalmente a Sachsenhausen andava sotto l'innocente... (Continues)

Sachsenhausen, 1944
Music / Musica: Unidentified / Non identificata

At Sachsenhausen, certain members of the Polish gentry sought to preserve their high-caste status by co-operating with the camp command. "It's cold, Sir!" challenges this "turncoat" behavior by ridiculing two upper-class Prominents, pseudonymously called Lulusiński and The Count. Both were informers, responsible for denouncing numerous underground activists to the Reich criminal police. Kulisiewicz's impudent gesture itself met with reprisal. In the middle of the night, in February 1945, he was pulled from his barrack and interrogated by the SS. The police, not surprisingly, had been acting on a "tip" provided by collaborationist friends of Lulusiński and "The Count". "Nice, warm dame" is a sly reference to the "Puff" (brothel) Kulisiewicz attests had begun operating in Sachsenhausen in 1944.



Disegno di Wiktor Simiński... (Continues)

Sachsenhausen 1943
Lyrics and music: Aleksander Kulisiewicz

Testo e musica: Aleksander Kulisiewicz

Es gibt dicke Luft! (“thick air coming!”) was the byword at Sachsenhausen when authorities threatened to break up a liaison between homosexual inmates. The persecution of gay prisoners peaked in the summer of 1942 when the Gestapo systematically delivered “registered homosexuals” -those marked by a pink triangle- to the Strafkompanie (punishment unit), an often fatal assignment. Homosexual activity nevertheless remained a fixture of life, notably among the so-called “asocial” (black triangle) and “criminal” (green triangle) prisoners. Of these, certain Prominents -privileged and protected inmates- managed to organize occasional get-together at their cell-blocks, complete with music and dancing. Kulisiewicz reports that in early November 1943, he was approached by a “green badge” prisoner... (Continues)

Sachsenhausen, 1943
Music: Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Text: Zdzisław Karr-Jaworski, Aleksander Kulisiewicz

Sachsenhausen, 1943
Musica: Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Testo: Zdzisław Karr-Jaworski, Aleksander Kulisiewicz

In early 1942, Polish prisoners newly arrived at Sachsenhausen told Kulisiewicz about a “gorgeous and unforgettable” song they had heard at Gusen (a subcamp of Mauthausen), “Prisoner's Dream” (Sen więźnia). While the poem itself was memorable, no one could quite recall the original choral arrangement. Kulisiewicz, also struck by the poem, decided to create his own setting, in the process changing its title and eliminating certain nationalist and religious imagery. Some listeners protested, but Kulisiewicz felt the changes were necessary if (as he believed) an ecumenical spirit were to prevail among the culturally diverse prison population. “A song that presented a vision of peace”,... (Continues)

Sachsenhausen, 1943.
Lyrics: Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Music: Wiktor Krupiński (“Po kieliszku”, Tadeusz Faliszewski, 1932)

Sachsenhausen, 1943
Testo: Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Musica: Wiktor Krupiński (“Po kieliszku”, Tadeusz Faliszewski, 1932)

Quarantined to his barrack during an outbreak of typhus, Kulisiewicz conceived of the “Corpse-Carrier's Tango”, a ghoulish rejoinder to those in his audience who clamored for some “happy music”. The song's setting is the Sachsenhausen morgue, realm of the Sonderkommandos, prisoners whose “special detail” was to collect and dispose of the bodies of the camp's numerous dead. “To fully understand the tragic-parodic nature of this song”, Kulisiewicz noted, “one must recall the atmosphere of the 'corpse-cellar' detail, where the corpse-carrier, himself ofter near death, would nap for 10-15 minutes alongside the piles of naked, foul-smelling bodies”. Kulisiewicz... (Continues)

Sachsenhausen, 1943.
Lyrics: Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Music: Polish folksong ("Nad Ebru falą")

Sachsenhausen, 1943
Testo: Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Music: Canzone popolare polacca ("Nad Ebru falą")

Soviet prisoner-of-war Andrei Sarapkin attended a remarkable recital at Sachsenhausen on May 1, 1944. He later wrote an account for the Moscow newspaper, Izvestia. It reads, in part:

“In those days the whole camp had thrilled to the news of Russian defeat of the German Army at Stalingrad. Aleks performed a group of Polish national songs. Then completely out of the blue, he sang "Hitler's Farewell to the World." The title of the song we learned only later. He performed loudly, fingers tapping on the wooden beams of the barrack bunks. It was difficult to believe that at Sachsenhausen, in the Kingdom of the Hitlerite SS, someone could perform such a song. Every Iine and couplet could lead to the... (Continues)

[1941]
Questa poesia fu composta in polacco nel 1941 dall’attore Tadeusz Kański (1902-1950) mentre si trovava prigioniero ad Auschwitz. Il titolo originario era “W Auschwitzlager gdy mieszkałem” ma non mi è riuscito di trovarne il testo. Invece sul Volkslieder Archive è disponibile il testo tradotto in tedesco.
I versi di Kański furono poi messi in musica nel 1944 da Aleksander Kulisiewicz, prigioniero a Sachsenhausen.
La canzone in polacco si trova nella raccolta di Kulisiewicz intitolata “Pieśni obozowe z hitlerowskich obozów koncentracyjnych 1939-45”, pubblicata nel 1979 dalla casa discografica polacca Muza.

La versione in tedesco di Doris Radojewski si trova nella raccolta “O bittre Zeit - Lagerlieder 1933-1945”

Tadeusz Kański è stato un attore, regista e sceneggiatore polacco attivo negli anni 20 e 30, conosciuto anche in Italia dove lavorò in alcune produzioni. Kański fu tra gli... (Continues)

Sachsenhausen, 1941/43
Lyrics by Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Music: Jindřich Harapát (“Travička zelená”, 1936)

Sachsenhausen, 1941/43
Testo di Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Musica: Jindřich Harapát (“Travička zelená”, 1936)

As an antidote to despair over Hitler’s seemingly unstoppable war machine, the brazen and ribald “Germania!” proved extremely popular. Rather than risk performing the entire piece, prisoners took to singing aloud only the word “Germania” —ironically endearing the song to the SS guards who, Kulisiewicz reports, regretted that it did not have more lyrics. After Germany’s crushing defeat at Stalingrad in February, 1943, Kulisiewicz added the second verse, peforming it with exaggerated gestures so his non-Polish audience could scarcely miss his meaning. For example, the word “Germania” was sung while imitating a Hitler Parade March—knees raised high with a springing motion, face... (Continues)

Sachsenhausen, 1942
Text und Musik: Jan Vala
Parole e musica di Jan Vala (?), prigioniero a Sachsenhausen con Kulisiewicz
Testo trovato su Volksliederarchiv (con la speranza che sia corretto!)
Trovo il brano nel disco “Chants de la deportation par Alex (Aleksander) Kulisiewicz”, Le Chant Du Monde, 1975
Anche nella raccolta “O bittre Zeit - Lagerlieder 1933-1945”

Altre fonti (p.e. qui) attribuiscono il brano a Paul Rakow, un artigiano berlinese anche lui rinchiuso per anni a Sachsenhausen e infine costretto ad arruolarsi nella famigerata “Brigata Dirlewanger”, un battaglione disciplinare della Wermacht composto da prigionieri, criminali comuni o detenuti politici che fossero. Rakow sparì, come tanti, nelle steppe russe. Si veda al proposito la canzone Wie lang es auch noch dauern mag.

“Kartoszki” è russificazione per “Kartoffeln”, patate. Come si è visto già per altri brani, come p.e.... (Continues)

[1943]
Versi di Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Musica tradizionale polacca
Testo – forse solo parziale – trovato qui
Nella raccolta di Kulisiewicz intitolata “Pieśni obozowe z hitlerowskich obozów koncentracyjnych 1939-45”, pubblicata nel 1979 dalla casa discografica polacca Muza.

Mi sembra di capire che questa “ninna nanna dall’inferno” sia stata composta da Kulisiewicz, prigioniero a Sachsenhausen, quando seppe della morte ad Auschwitz II–Birkenau di un bambino figlio di un suo amico, rinchiuso con la famiglia in quel campo.

Sachsenhausen, 1942
Lyrics: Aleskander Kulisiewicz
Music: Henryk Wars (“Jest Jedna Jedyna,” 1938)

Campo di concentramento di Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, Brandeburgo
Parole di Aleskander Kulisiewicz
Musica di Henry Vars (1902-1977), il nome assunto negli USA dal compositore polacco Henryk Warszawski, abbreviato in Wars, autore di moltissime musiche anche per il cinema tra cui il celebre tango del 1938 “Jest jedna jedyna”. Un suo brano, la canzone d’amore “Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą” del 1937, è compreso nella colonna sonora de “Il pianista” di Roman Polanski.

Kulisiewicz spent his formative years in the town of Cieszyn where his father worked as a teacher, and his nostalgia for that picturesque region on the Olza River southwest of Krakow was deep and enduring. He later wrote that when he was a prisoner he “often dreamed of returning to the banks of this beloved river.” With its... (Continues)

[1944]
Versi di Roman Friedlein, un giovane polacco.
Su di una melodia del compositore ungherese Ferenc Lehar (1870-1948).
Testo trovato su w-blasku blog
Nella raccolta di Kulisiewicz intitolata “Pieśni obozowe z hitlerowskich obozów koncentracyjnych 1939-45”, pubblicata nel 1979 dalla casa discografica polacca Muza.

Nel suo volume “Auschwitz” (tradotto in inglese col titolo “Auschwitz: True Tales From a Grotesque Land) l’autrice Sara Nomberg-Przytyk, una sopravvissuta, racconta che Roman Friedlein era uno studente di Cracovia internato ad Auschwitz II-Birkenau e che scrisse questa poesia guardando una ragazzina zingara che ballava una “csárda” ungherese per ottenere qualcosa da mangiare dalle guardie del campo. Roman Friedlein era all’epoca già gravemente ammalato di tubercolosi e poco prima di morire gli toccò pure di assistere all’eliminazione degli zingari nelle camere a gas, la... (Continues)

[1941]
Versi di Włodzimierz Wnuk (1915-1992), scrittore e giornalista polacco, che dal 1939 al 1941 fu internato nei campi nazisti di Stutthof, Sachsenhausen e Mauthausen-Gusen.
Musica composta da Aleksander Kulisiewicz nel 1943, mentre si trovava prigioniero a Sachsenhausen
Nella raccolta intitolata “Pieśni obozowe. Mauthausen/Gusen” pubblicata dalla polacca Veriton (anno non riscontrato).

Poi nel volume con CD “The Undying Flame: Ballads And Songs Of The Holocaust”, a cura di Jerry Silverman.

Gusen è il nome dato a tre dei quarantanove sottocampi del campo di concentramento nazista di Mauthausen, nell’Austria annessa al Terzo Reich. A Gusen I, II e III, costruiti in rapida successione, avevano sede alcune delle fabbriche belliche tedesche più importanti, la Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG e Messerschmitt AG. Gli impianti furono allestiti sotto terra, in un complesso sistema di gallerie lunghe... (Continues)

[Sachsenhausen, 1942]
Lyrics by Aleksander Kulisiewicz
Music: Ukrainian folk melody (“E shumyt e hudyt”)
Nella raccolta intitolata “Ballads and Broadsides - Songs from Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp 1940-1945”, frutto di una ricerca della professoressa Barbara Milewski, Assistant Professor of Music presso lo Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, USA. Pubblicata dalla United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)

“Wilhelm Böhm, nicknamed “Czarny” (black) Böhm, was among the more grisly denizens of Sachsenhausen camp. Short and hunchbacked, with long, ape-like arms, Böhm, a camp Kapo, was also distinctly charred in appearance due to his work as a cremation specialist. Wildly enthusiastic about his job, Böhm had been known to cry out to passing prisoners, “Come to Böhm! You’ll surely be coming my way soon, so why not now?” Kulisiewicz reports that in 1941–1942 Böhm helped cremate some 18,000... (Continues)