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Tania Przywara
Professor T. Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1102-003
21 October 2015
Inquiry Topic Holocaust Source
In researching my topic of music in the Holocaust using online electronic resources, I
discovered a new source entitled Honoring 'Our Will To Live': The Lost Music Of The
Holocaust. This 2013 source is written by Sylvia Poggioli and is found on the website npr.org.
Honoring 'Our Will To Live': The Lost Music Of The Holocaust is a source which is
about an Italian pianist, musicologist, and music teacher named Francesco Lotoro. Lotoro has
been on a decades-long mission to recover music that was composed by prisoners in Holocaust
camps before and during the time of World War II. On this project to find and resurrect the
music of these deceased prisoners, Lotoro has found thousands of songs, symphonies, and operas
written in concentration, labor and POW camps in Germany and elsewhere before and during
World War II. By rescuing compositions written in imprisonment, Lotoro wants to fill the hole
left in Europe's musical history and show how even the horrors of the Holocaust could not
suppress artistic inspiration. He wants to show to the world that art and the human spirit can
prevail despite death and brutality. Finding and resurrecting this lost music is a profound
undertaking of Lotoro.
There are several quotes found in the source Honoring 'Our Will To Live': The Lost
Music Of The Holocaust which I find relevant to my inquiry topic. The first quote which I
would like to discuss deals with how Lotoro believes that whenever a human being is deported
and imprisoned, music is created. He says. I think [music] is an almost automatic response to a

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situation of detention," says Lotoro. "They wanted to leave a testament; they leave to us music."
I think that this is important because it helps to explain the feelings behind the music of the
prisoners in camps. This quote shows that the prisoners did not want to just experience the
Holocaust brutality and not have anything to show for it. They wanted to have some sort of
meaning for all of it, and they were able to get some meaning out of it by composing and playing
music that sprung from the experience of the Holocaust. Music expresses emotions of all sorts,
and through this type of medium, a profound testament to the human spirit amid the Holocaust
suffering could be achieved.
Another quote of Lotoros that I find interesting is, For them, time had pretty much
stopped at the time of their incarceration, and music became a great escape hatch for them.
"There are really hundreds, if not thousands of topical songs, original songs, in the style of light
music, cabaret music, and so this is what these young people had in their heads." This quote is
important to my inquiry topic because it shows the thought process of the imprisoned musicians
in the camps. They had to deal with such terrible and oppressive things in the camps, and they
wanted to still feel what lightheartedness and joy was. They achieved this desire through their
music. Music was able to transport them away from the suffering all around them, and to bring a
sense of happy escape to their lives, even if for only a short while. I think this is highly
important in explaining the role of music in the Holocaust. Music served as a sort of coping
mechanism for many people. From this quote we learn that young people especially wanted this
cheerful, light-hearted music to escape to a happier place with.
My third relevant quote of Lotoros is, "The artist is able to separate the external situation
from the creativity that belongs to the mind, to the heart. I think that this is a profound quote
because it shows how powerful artistic expression is. Music was not just something that

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happened to occur as part of the Holocaust. It was something that happened because of its
incredible ability to transcend the present circumstances of life and create the feeling of beauty
and hope. Even in a brutal concentration camp, a composer can still feel this sense of beauty in
his or her heart. Through music, these uplifting feelings can be expressed and shared with others
who are also suffering. No oppressive tyrants can take away the wonderful creativity and
emotion that reside deep in the human mind and heart. This quote as well as the other two, are
great additions to my knowledge and research of musics role in the Holocaust.