[MusicEvents] Cabaret and the Art of Survival at the Concentration Camp Westerbork

[Nancy Melton]

In conjunction with the A&M-Commerce Globalization Conference the
Department of Music is pleased to host Dr. Edward Hafer, Associate
Professor of Music History at The University of Southern Mississippi.
Dr. Hafer will  present his paper Cabaret and the Art of Survival at the
Concentration Camp Westerbork on Friday, Nov. 16, at 8:00am in the
Finney Concert Hall, Music Building.  This event is free and open to the
public.

 

 

Cabaret and the Art of Survival at the Concentration Camp Westerbork

 

Dr. Edward Hafer, Associate Professor of Music History

The University of Southern Mississippi

In 1942, the German government assumed control of the Dutch refugee camp
Westerbork and turned it into a way station through which Jews captured
in the Netherlands would pass before being deported to the eastern death
camps.  Among the prisoners were prominent actors and musicians who had
been stars of the Berlin cabaret scene before the Nazis banned Jews from
the German stage in the 1930s.  From 1943 to 1944, these performers, led
by Max Ehrlich, Willy Rosen, and Erich Ziegler, organized a series of
six cabarets for their captors and fellow prisoners.  The shows included
short skits, music, comedy, and dancing.  Before long, the Theater
Gruppe Westerbork was hailed as one of the finest cabarets in Europe.

 

Documentary evidence suggests that these performances were not merely
intended for general merriment.  Albert Konrad Gemmeker, the camp
commandant and staunch supporter of the theater group, considered the
productions a status symbol that earned him prestige in the eyes of Nazi
officials in the Hague.  He granted special privileges to his star
performers, and, in turn, the cabarets grew ever more elaborate.
Organizers sought to involve as many contributors as possible in hopes
that their participation might spare them from the weekly transports to
the death camps.  Dr. Hafer's presentation will consider the oddly
symbiotic relationship between the performers and the camp commandant
and document the prisoners' concerted effort to use the productions to
curry favor with camp leadership as an act of survival.  He will also
give an overview of the performances themselves and consider
contemporary reactions to the cabarets, including those of fellow
prisoners who objected to seemingly light-hearted entertainment set
amidst a backdrop of death and uncertainty.  The presentation will
include images, music, and video from actual Westerbork productions.

 


 

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