Abstract

This chapter analyzes the musical score as a testimonial document by considering the sonic histories and afterlives of concentration camp melodies. Archivist and musicologist Inge Lammel founded one of the earliest collections of survivor songs under the auspices of the Workers’ Song Archive at the East Berlin Academy of the Arts. Herself a survivor, Lammel’s efforts testified not only to the traumatic experience of Nazi persecution but also to the ideology of the fledgling East German State. Hundreds of former camp musicians sent Lammel their work in a period where there was little to no public awareness for the documentation of these sounding artifacts. Ludmila Peškařová, a Czech Christian political prisoner who was held in Ravensbrück concentration camp for 18 months, was among those who shared her music with Lammel. Peškařová scores are singularly unique, and include her originals from the camp and later versions from the 1960s.