Lied und Gesang im KZ

Song and Singing in the Concentration Camp. Song and Singing in the Concentration Camp - these are the terms associated with the Moorsoldatenlied, perhaps also the Dachau- or Buchenwaldlied. It is, however, hardly known that singing were an integral aspect of everyday life in the concentration camps of the Third Reich. When the guards ordered the prisoners to sing a song during marching, while doing military exercises, or during penalty work, they wanted to mock and humiliate them and also to discipline them according to the military model of singing on command. But the prisoners also resorted to music. In that case the songs, performed out of self-motivation, mostly for one voice, unaccompanied, and in a group, helped to cope emotionally with the life-threatening situation in the camp, to strengthen the involuntary community, and they were a means of spiritual resistance. This applies especially to those songs composed by the prisoners in the concentration camps which occasionally turned into specific melodies identifying individual camps (concentration camp hymns). But the term "Concentration Camp Song" requires a widening of its definition as in most cases already known songs from all genres and styles were used. Quite often they were adapted to the specific song needs in the camp through contrafactum and parody. At the same time the transformation of the song repertoire in the concentration camp reflected not only the song tradition of the imprisoned nationals and special prisoner groups, but also the expansion and internationalization of the prisoner community after the beginning of the Second World War.