Today in Berlin
Berlin wall - 20th anniversary concert: Daniel Bahrenboim, Klaus Maria Brandauer (narrator) - A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46 - Arnold Schönberg -
another day in history: November 9, 1938...
Die Staatskapelle Berlin unter Leitung von Daniel Barenboim und der Staatsopernchor (Sprecher Klaus Maria Brandauer) beim Konzert „20 Jahre Mauerfall“ vor dem Brandenburger Tor mit Wagner, Schönberg, Beethoven und Goldmann. The narration depicts the story of a survivor from the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War, from his time in a concentration camp. The narrator does not remember how he ended up living in the Warsaw sewers. One day, in the camp, the Nazi authorities held a roll call of a group of Jews. The group tried to assemble, but there was confusion, and the guards beat the old and ailing Jews who could not line up quickly enough. Those Jews left on the ground were presumed to be dead, and the guards asked for another count, to see how many would be deported to the death camps. The guards ask for a faster and faster head count, and the work culminates as the Jews begin to sing the prayer Shema Yisroel. In Schönberg’s piece, the creed ends with Deuteronomy 6:7 “and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up."
Text von Arnold SchönbergI cannot remember ev’rything.
I must have been unconscious most of the time.
I remember only the grandiose moment
when they all strated to sing as if prearranged,
the old prayer they had neglected for so many years
the forgotten creed! But I have no recollection how I got underground
to live in the sewers of Warsaw for so long a time. The day began as usual: Reveille when it still was dark.
Get out! Whether you slept or whether worries kept you awake the whole night.
You had been separated from your children, from your wife, from your parents;
you don’t know what happened to them how could you sleep? The trumpets again –
Get out! The sergeant will be furious!
They came out; some very slow: the old ones, the sick ones;
some with nervous agility.
They fear the sergeant. They hurry as much as they can. In vain! Much too much noise; much too much commotion – and not fast enough!
The Feldwebel shouts: »Achtung! Stilljestanden! Na wirds mal? Oder soll ich mit dem Jewehrkolben nachhelfen? Na jutt; wenn ihrs durchaus haben wollt!«The sergeant and his subordinates hit everybody:
young or old, quiet or nervous, guilty or innocent.
It was painful to hear them groaning and moaning. I heard it though I had been hit very hard,
so hard that I could not help falling down.
We all on the ground who could not stand up were then beaten over the head. I must have been unconscious. The next thing I knew was a soldier saying:
»They are all dead«,
whereupon the sergeant ordered to do away with us.
There I lay aside halfconscious.
It had become very still – fear and pain. Then I heard the sergeant shouting: »Abzählen!«
They started slowly and irregularly: one, two, three, four
»Achtung!« the sergeant shouted again,
»Rascher! Nochmal von vorn anfangen! In einer Minute will ich wissen,
wieviele ich zur Gaskammer abliefere!
Abzählen!»They began again, first slowly: one, two, three, four,
became faster and faster, so fast
that it finally sounded like a stampede of wild horses,
and all of a sudden, in the middle of it,
they began singing the Sema’ Yisroel.[Shema Yisroel - Prayer]
