A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46, is a work for narrator, men's chorus, and orchestra written by the Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg in 1947. The initial inspiration for the work was a suggestion from the Russian émigrée dancer Corinne Chochem for a work to pay tribute to the Holocaust victims of the German Third Reich. While the collaboration between Chochem and Schönberg did not come to fruition, Schönberg continued to develop the idea for such a work independently. He then received a letter from the Koussevitzsky Music Foundation for a commission for an orchestral work. Schönberg then decided to fulfill this commission with this tribute work. He wrote the work from 11 August 1947 to 23 August 1947.[1]
Because of the connection of the Koussevitzsky Foundation and the conductor Serge Koussevitzsky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, it was presumed at the time that the Boston Symphony and Koussevitzsky would give the premiere. However, Kurt Frederick, conductor of the Albuquerque Civic Symphony Orchestra, had heard about this new work, and wrote to Schönberg to ask for permission to give the premiere. Schönberg agreed, and stipulated that, in lieu of a performance fee, the New Mexico musicians prepare a full set of orchestral and choral parts and send those to him. The premiere was originally scheduled for 7 September 1948, but did not occur until 4 November 1948 in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the University of New Mexico.[1] Kurt Frederick conducted the Albuquerque Civic Symphony Orchestra, with Sherman Smith as the narrator. Between the two dates of the scheduled and actual premiere, Koussevitzsky had heard of the request from Albuquerque, and approved of the situation.[1]
The work lasts a little more than six minutes. Richard S. Hill published a contemporary analysis of Schoenberg's use of twelve-tone rows in this composition.[2] Jacques-Louis Monod prepared a definitive edition of the score, which was published in 1979.[3] Beat A. Föllmi has published a detailed analysis of the narrative of A Survivor from Warsaw.[4]
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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, which reads “and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up."
I cannot remember everything. I must have been unconscious most of the time.
I remember only the grandiose moment when they all started 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 slowly, 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 wird's mal! Oder soll ich mit dem Jewehrkolben nachhelfen? Na jut; wenn ihrs durchaus haben wollt!" ("Attention! Stand still! How about it, or should I help you along with the butt of my rifle? Oh well, if you really want to have it!")
The sergeant and his subordinates hit (everyone): young or old, (strong or sick), quiet, 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 heard was a soldier saying: "They are all dead!"
Whereupon the sergeant ordered to do away with us.
There I lay aside half conscious. I had become very still - fear and pain. Then I heard the sergeant shouting: „Abzählen!“ ("Count off!")
They start slowly and irregularly: one, two, three, four - "Achtung!" The sergeant shouted again, "Rascher! Nochmals von vorn anfange! In einer Minute will ich wissen, wieviele ich zur Gaskammer abliefere! Abzählen!“ ("Faster! Once more, start from the beginning! In one minute I want to know how many I am going to send off to the gas chamber! Count off!")
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 Shema Yisroel.
| Hebrew (Transliterated) | English Translation |
|---|---|
| Sh'ma Yisraeil, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. Baruch sheim k'vod malchuto l'olam vaed. V'ahavta eit Adonai Elohecha b'chawl l'vav'cha uv'chawl nafsh'cha, uv'chawl m'odecha. V'hayu had'varim haeileh, asher anochi m'tsav'cha hayom, al l'vavecha. V'shinantam l'vanecha, v'dibarta bam b'shivt'cha b'veitecha, uvlecht'cha vaderech, uv'shawchb'cha uvkumecha. Ukshartam l'ot al yadecha, v'hayu l'totafot bein einecha. Uchtavtam, al m'zuzot beitecha, uvisharecha. |
Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And these words which I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them thoroughly to your children, and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates. |
As noted in the documentary The Ninth, at at least one performance (the date is not mentioned), "In a tremendous symbolic gesture, the Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn plays Schoenberg's 'A Survivor from Warsaw' and without a pause goes straight into the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. The Jewish prayer is joined by Beethoven's."
On 30 October 2010, the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle performed this piece in the same way into Mahler's Second Symphony. [5]