Uncovering a precious heritage: the unknown music of the Holocaust

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This doctoral research project is based on the prestigious resources of the Alexander KulisiewiczCollection, a unique archive, nowadays stored at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inWashington DC, that preserves musical compositions written by prisoners in the Nazi concentration campsduring World War II. Despite its extraordinary importance, most of the archive remains little known to thescholarly community even today, as acknowledged by many leading academics in the field. Therefore, theproject aims to explore and shed light on neglected and completely forgotten composers and to bringtheir artistic heritage back to the attention of the public, scholars, performers, as well as the internationalmusicological community. The work will not only contribute to deepening and broadening our currentlylimited knowledge of this repertoire but also help to restore, through their art, the memory of all thosewho were persecuted during the war. The research will take into account both instrumental and vocalcompositions written by internees imprisoned in the German camps and in those established in theoccupied Poland, with a particular focus on composers Leon Kaczmarek and Teodora Grace from KLDachau, Ludmila Peskarova from KL Ravensbruck, Waleria Felchnerowska from KL Stutthof, and SofiaKarpinska from KL Majdanek. The research will be carried out through a historical and artistic archiving ofthis enormous musical testimony, together with a musical analysis of the scores, inquiry of texts andhistorical contextualisation in order to display this musical legacy not only within an academic frameworkbut also to musicians and performers who wish to perform and study such an important historical periodfrom an artistic perspective. For this reason, the research outcomes will be made available through thepublication of a monograph followed by edited scores and recordings of the music thereto related.