How Music Saved Alice Herz
by matchequeda
I just watched a very interesting video about how a 40 year old pianist literally and figuratively used music to survive the holocaust. Now, she’s outliving the Nazis, praising her love for music as the reason she is alive.
The account is shocking to me. Reflecting on it, the fact that the Nazis let their Jewish prisoners play music and engage with the arts at all is crazy. What could be more human than music?
This makes me think about the intersection between music and the holocaust in general. I found a wonderful webpage dedicated to the study of this. Some interesting things I learned about were the Hitler Youth’s use of music, and the Nazi Socialist Conservative rejection of jazz or any music that was new or different. This reminded me of what Dr. Dolan discussed in early lectures about the power and purpose of music.
Check it out here: http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/
What purposes do we use music for today? Is music propaganda alive and strong? When is it okay to use art to fuel a political campaign – and when has it crossed the line?
And to see a great example of propaganda music, here is a video of Bill Clinton’s 1993 Inauguration. Start at 3:30 — that way, you’ll see the Clinton family standing around awkwardly while Fleetwood Mac struggles to make it through the song. And Michael Jackson comes out of nowhere!
The Thousand-Year Ears 
Thanks for sharing. The video on Alice Herz-Sommer was a welcome reminder of the beauty of life during these last weeks of finals and projects and with OCR looming ahead. I find that it’s difficult for me to snap out of the work grind, but music and other arts almost always do the job. It’s a little ironic that I watched the video in the first place because I wanted to check off “comment on music blog” off my list of things to do, but ended up feeling less inclined to work relentlessly after.
Also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone clap like Chelsea Clinton did on stage, haha.
Thank you for introducing me to Alice Herz and her story. Even in the midst of such a tragic period in history, one can find specks of hope and spirit in people such as her. I wonder if you guys have seen the movie “The Pianist”? It is one of my favorite films and it is loosely similar to aspects of the post above. In the movie, a pianist lives through the holocaust because of his piano playing. To me, music has enormous power and influence over people.
Its always powerful to see how music can be used as expression, in the face of adversity. It can be a powerful force and rallying cry uniting people in their cause. There is a documentary called “Searching for Sugar Man” which is about an american artist who’s music was completely overlooked in the United States but not only became popular in South Africa but became the music of the anti-apartied movement. Its a powerful documentary about the power music can have to change the world.
Interesting point! You’re right – art has a way of being used for propaganda, sometimes without the artist meaning to. This reminds me of Leni Riefenstahl’s documentaries that were allegedly never meant to be used as Nazi propaganda. To answer your question, I think the liberties people are able to take with art crosses the line when their use of the work blatantly defies the artist’s intention. Thanks for sharing this!
Really interesting piece. As Junting Meng said, “The Pianist” is a great movie which basically shows the power of music even at the lowest of times (in that movie it was the Holocaust as well). As for propaganda, music propaganda definitely still runs strong – in both directions though. For example, if I remember correctly, for the new Android phones, “Holy Grail” by Jay-Z was added on them before they were sold. While it may not be political, it shows the way that figures from all industries are able to promote their views in ways which do seem to cross the line (in this case, I think it did – what if you are a phone user who doesn’t like rap?) However, we really shouldn’t expect anything less from the power music possesses.
Music certainly has a power to help us when we are depressed, in blues. Music is widely used for therapy, too. Like you said, I am really surprised that Nazi let the prisoners play their music…
Music has incredible power, and I think your post demonstrates this perfectly. A “feel-good” song can make one’s day, and Coldplay’s Fix You can bring one to tears even on a good day. It’s interesting how this woman has been able to use music to heal, thanks for the post!
I definitely agree with you that music has some amazing power that supports us when we are down and shares our happiness when we are joyful. Also, thanks for introducing the story of Alice Herz to us, it’s very touching.
The story of Alice Hertz is magnificent. Music does have the ability to lift the spirit and help through hard times. This women obviously has tremendous strength in character as well.
I definitely use music as a therapeutic tactic. There’s nothing I love more than doing work with music in the background, driving around with music blasting in the car, going to bed after listening to some great music, etc. There’s something so calming and beautiful about losing yourself in the emotion and lyrics of a song, and I think it’s truly an aspect of the human experience that I’m just completely amazed by. I hope the power of music only grows over time.
I usually play some music to relieve some stress or pressure that I have from all the schoolwork and finals. This is probably similar to how Alice used music to go through the holocaust. Music indeed does help people to feel lighter in terms of stress and forget all the bad things that happened/are happening currently.
Again I felt the great power of music to unite people together and act as a placebo to so many people. Thank you for the story.
It is very hard to imagine what these survivors went through during the Holocaust but I was stunned to hear how music kept their sanity and strengthened their minds. A very touching and inspiring quote from the video clip is…
“You can actually have music without anybody knowing that it is happening. You can actually go into another world.”