SONGS BY THE DANCER OF AUSCHWITZ

Baden near Vienna, Austria | 2nd of June 2015 19:30 - 21:30 | Theater am Steg | Presentation by Dutchman Paul Glaser of the life of his aunt Rosie | The German-language book “Die Tänzerin von Auschwitz” [English “Dancing with the enemy”] | Still images and historical video clips provided by Paul Glaser.

As a victim of the Nazi’s ideology, Jewish Rosie survived 7 concentration camps. There she wrote songs, danced and gave dance lessons. She died in 2000 in Stockholm, Sweden. The lyrics for some songs were found by her nephew Paul Glaser in her estate. As part of his presentation of Aunt Rosie’s life our jazz quartet performed 4 of those songs with the help of Irena Noskova, Viennese jazz singer with Czech roots.

Sources:
The 1st song’s melody was taken from “Ich wollt ich wär ein Huhn” [Peter Kreuder, 1936], a tune from the movie Lucky Kids [Glückskinder]. The 2nd tune was taken from the Vienna drinking song “Ich hab mir in Grinzing einen Dienstmann engagiert“ [Bruno Uher, 1937], roughly translated as “I got myself in Grinzing an assistant”. For the 3rd homesickness song, a tune was created by Helmut Schwarzer [Baden, 2014] specifically for the jazz quartet. The 4th and final song has unclear roots and possibly is a combination of tunes found elsewhere. Thanks must go to our friend the US opera soprano Heidi Adair and the Viennese jazz pianist/clarinetist Herbert Swoboda for their contribution in assembling and documenting the music.

Theater am Steg, Johannesgasse 14, Baden bei Wien, Austria