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Sing, Memory: The Remarkable Story of the Man Who Saved the Music of the Nazi Camps
In October 1942, SS guards at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp violently disbanded a rehearsal of a secret Jewish choir led by conductor Rosebery d'Arguto. Many in the group did not live to see morning, and those who survived were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only one of its members survived the Holocaust. Yet their story survives, thanks to Aleksander Kulisiewicz. An amateur musician, he was not Jewish, but became friends with d'Arguto in Sachsenhausen. D'Arguto tasked him with a to save the musical heritage of the victims of the Nazi camps.
In Sing, Memory, Makana Eyre recounts Kulisiewicz's transformation from a Polish nationalist into a guardian of music and culture from the Nazi camps. Aided by an eidetic memory, Kulisiewicz was able to preserve for posterity not only his own songs about life at the camp, but the music and poetry of prisoners from a range of backgrounds. They composed symphonies, organized clandestine choirs, and gathered to perform for one another. For many, music enabled them to resist, bear witness, and maintain their humanity in some of the most brutal conditions imaginable.
After the war, Kulisiewicz returned to Poland and assembled an archive of camp music, which he went on to perform in more than a dozen countries. He dedicated the remainder of his life to the memory of the Nazi camps.
In Sing, Memory, Makana Eyre recounts Kulisiewicz's transformation from a Polish nationalist into a guardian of music and culture from the Nazi camps. Aided by an eidetic memory, Kulisiewicz was able to preserve for posterity not only his own songs about life at the camp, but the music and poetry of prisoners from a range of backgrounds. They composed symphonies, organized clandestine choirs, and gathered to perform for one another. For many, music enabled them to resist, bear witness, and maintain their humanity in some of the most brutal conditions imaginable.
After the war, Kulisiewicz returned to Poland and assembled an archive of camp music, which he went on to perform in more than a dozen countries. He dedicated the remainder of his life to the memory of the Nazi camps.
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Published July 3, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
May 19, 2024
Over the past year I’ve read a couple of accounts of life during and after The Holocaust: Viktor E. Frank’s ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ and Tadeusz Borowski’s ‘This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen’, and I must soon read Primo Levi’s ‘If This is a Man/The Truce’. I’m not so much interested in the historical facts of WWII, more how people living imprisoned in the Nazi camps coped with such unimaginable conditions.
I must admit that, even as a musician, I’d thought little about music in the camps – perhaps because music and musical expression is one of the true celebrations of human existence, the complete antithesis of what history teaches us of life in the camps. However Makana Eyre’s stunningly researched and detailed ‘Sing, Memory’, provided me with a moment of clarity, realising that of course music (and literature) would have been such a prominent and powerful source of strength to endure life in the most horrific situations of the 20th Century.
Eyre’s work beautifully recounts the life of Aleksander Kulisiewicz, a Polish musician & journalist imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for his newspaper articles denouncing Hitler. Whilst at Sachsenhausen, Kulisiewicz (known as Aleks) was introduced to the Jewish composer and choral conductor Rosebery d’Arguto. Rosebery led a clandestine choir that rehearsed and performed at the greatest personal risk. Aleks was so moved that he made it his life’s work to preserve the music of the camps, along with the stories and memories of those who did not survive.
After his release, Kulisiewicz then spent the rest of his life collecting and archiving camp culture - music, poetry and survivors’ memoirs. He recorded an album of the songs he and d’Arguto composed, many of which used the poetry written by his friends at Sachsenhausen.
As a musician myself, this book resonates with the impact music has always had on my own life. I found it a deeply moving experience, and a fascinating insight into the mental state of Nazi camp prisoners.
It is meticulously researched, and the level of detail Eyre has achieved makes for, at times, an almost cinematic read.
I must admit that, even as a musician, I’d thought little about music in the camps – perhaps because music and musical expression is one of the true celebrations of human existence, the complete antithesis of what history teaches us of life in the camps. However Makana Eyre’s stunningly researched and detailed ‘Sing, Memory’, provided me with a moment of clarity, realising that of course music (and literature) would have been such a prominent and powerful source of strength to endure life in the most horrific situations of the 20th Century.
Eyre’s work beautifully recounts the life of Aleksander Kulisiewicz, a Polish musician & journalist imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for his newspaper articles denouncing Hitler. Whilst at Sachsenhausen, Kulisiewicz (known as Aleks) was introduced to the Jewish composer and choral conductor Rosebery d’Arguto. Rosebery led a clandestine choir that rehearsed and performed at the greatest personal risk. Aleks was so moved that he made it his life’s work to preserve the music of the camps, along with the stories and memories of those who did not survive.
After his release, Kulisiewicz then spent the rest of his life collecting and archiving camp culture - music, poetry and survivors’ memoirs. He recorded an album of the songs he and d’Arguto composed, many of which used the poetry written by his friends at Sachsenhausen.
As a musician myself, this book resonates with the impact music has always had on my own life. I found it a deeply moving experience, and a fascinating insight into the mental state of Nazi camp prisoners.
It is meticulously researched, and the level of detail Eyre has achieved makes for, at times, an almost cinematic read.
April 9, 2023
Sing, Memory is unsettling, poignant, heart breaking and gut wrenching true story of non-Jewish Polish Aleksander Kulisiewicz and his harrowing accounts of surviving the horrors of death camps, particularly Sachsenhausen. Though I have read countless books about the Holocaust and killing camp survival, this one is one of the most striking, raw and emotive. Author Makana Eyre has meticulously researched and gathered copious amounts of notes, songs, lyrics, poetry, sketches, prisoner diaries, letters, memoirs, manuscripts and even paintings of the musical life in camps and compiled them into this brutal yet achingly beautiful book.
Aleksander (Aleks) describes daily survival in Sachsenhausen in minute detail from the most dire of humiliation, mental and physical agony and anguish imaginable and unimaginable. What innocent prisoners endured is nauseating and crushing and the author captures it starkly and vividly. Music kept amateur singer/writer Aleks alive during his nearly six nightmarish years. While performing horrific duties, being tortured, starved and standing for endless roll calls, his mind went to composing music and lyrics and he zoned out. His goal was to memorize and recount music from other talents all over camps who were desperate to have their stories told, mostly in music. He kept his promise which later resulted in thousands and thousands of pages of transcribed information.
The secret Jewish choir of Sachsenhausen was formed and led by Rosebery d'Arguto but ripped apart and the members were dealt with brutally. Rosebery was not heard from again. Aleks promised Rosebery he would collect and memorize memories of prisoners. In various cell blocks he sang about misery, sadness and sorrow but also used satire and sang hopeful songs about freedom and love. Years later, he sang with such animation and passion he rendered audiences speechless. He became so obsessed with gathering memories even after liberation that he was in a constant anxious state of reliving camp experiences, suffering terribly.
The author writes about Aleksander's life after liberation until his death. Sing, Memory is very difficult to read but crucial information to know and remember. If only Mr. Kulisiewicz knew how much his work touches people, including myself. I am grateful stories such as these are researched and told.
My sincere thank you to W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for the honour of reading this extraordinary and highly important book. It should be required reading for everyone. Absolutely unforgettable.
Aleksander (Aleks) describes daily survival in Sachsenhausen in minute detail from the most dire of humiliation, mental and physical agony and anguish imaginable and unimaginable. What innocent prisoners endured is nauseating and crushing and the author captures it starkly and vividly. Music kept amateur singer/writer Aleks alive during his nearly six nightmarish years. While performing horrific duties, being tortured, starved and standing for endless roll calls, his mind went to composing music and lyrics and he zoned out. His goal was to memorize and recount music from other talents all over camps who were desperate to have their stories told, mostly in music. He kept his promise which later resulted in thousands and thousands of pages of transcribed information.
The secret Jewish choir of Sachsenhausen was formed and led by Rosebery d'Arguto but ripped apart and the members were dealt with brutally. Rosebery was not heard from again. Aleks promised Rosebery he would collect and memorize memories of prisoners. In various cell blocks he sang about misery, sadness and sorrow but also used satire and sang hopeful songs about freedom and love. Years later, he sang with such animation and passion he rendered audiences speechless. He became so obsessed with gathering memories even after liberation that he was in a constant anxious state of reliving camp experiences, suffering terribly.
The author writes about Aleksander's life after liberation until his death. Sing, Memory is very difficult to read but crucial information to know and remember. If only Mr. Kulisiewicz knew how much his work touches people, including myself. I am grateful stories such as these are researched and told.
My sincere thank you to W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for the honour of reading this extraordinary and highly important book. It should be required reading for everyone. Absolutely unforgettable.
November 16, 2023
Progressed more slowly through the 260 pages of this book than I usually would, simply because of its weight and impact. This is one of the most harrowing, moving, and meaningful books I’ve read. Details the absolute horrors of what humans are capable of, and also the resilience of humanity. What I appreciated so deeply, though, is the stated impact of music. Throughout, music is a means of survival, coping, and defiance — for some, the meaning of life itself. Couldn’t more highly recommend this book, but do know, the content is as heavy as it is moving.
March 10, 2023
Though I’ve read innumerable books about the Holocaust, I never came across the name Aleksander Kulisiewicz. After reading Sing, Memory, his name and his memory deserve much wider recognition.
Alecs was a non Jewish Polish citizen and a musician also blessed with a phenomenal memory. He was in his early twenties when he was sent by the Nazis to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, One of the torments he suffered at the hands of the Nazis was being forced to sing, along with his camp mates, various German songs, and beatings were inflicted if the songs weren’t sung correctly. To counter his suffering, he, in his head, would sing songs of his native land.
His life changed when he met Rosebery d’Arguto, a Pole and well known musicologist, who had moved to Germany and was the conductor of a choir., until he lost his post because he was Jewish. Rosenbery knew that music alleviated the torments of the camp, and secretly created a Jewish men’s choir, an act forbidden by the Nazis. Rosebery created original choral music for the choir, and asked Alecs to remember the music and publicize it after the war. Rosebery and members of the choir lost their lives when a choir rehearsal was discovered by the camp guards.
As a result, Alecs decided he needed to preserve all the camp songs, and he secretly memorized all the songs created by the camp inmates. After the war, he made it his mission to get the music out into the world, and the author brilliantly describes his efforts. Until reading this book, I had no idea that Alecs recorded an album of the camp music in 1979 while in the US. After his death, his voluminous files and audio tapes languished until they were obtained by the the US Holocaust museum.
Sing, Memory is one of the most unique historical books about the Holocaust that I’ve ever read. For me, it shed much needed light on an unrecognized and forgotten hero of that awful period. Well written and incredibly detailed, it is a work that will have a distinguished place on my bookshelf.
My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this remarkable book.
Alecs was a non Jewish Polish citizen and a musician also blessed with a phenomenal memory. He was in his early twenties when he was sent by the Nazis to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, One of the torments he suffered at the hands of the Nazis was being forced to sing, along with his camp mates, various German songs, and beatings were inflicted if the songs weren’t sung correctly. To counter his suffering, he, in his head, would sing songs of his native land.
His life changed when he met Rosebery d’Arguto, a Pole and well known musicologist, who had moved to Germany and was the conductor of a choir., until he lost his post because he was Jewish. Rosenbery knew that music alleviated the torments of the camp, and secretly created a Jewish men’s choir, an act forbidden by the Nazis. Rosebery created original choral music for the choir, and asked Alecs to remember the music and publicize it after the war. Rosebery and members of the choir lost their lives when a choir rehearsal was discovered by the camp guards.
As a result, Alecs decided he needed to preserve all the camp songs, and he secretly memorized all the songs created by the camp inmates. After the war, he made it his mission to get the music out into the world, and the author brilliantly describes his efforts. Until reading this book, I had no idea that Alecs recorded an album of the camp music in 1979 while in the US. After his death, his voluminous files and audio tapes languished until they were obtained by the the US Holocaust museum.
Sing, Memory is one of the most unique historical books about the Holocaust that I’ve ever read. For me, it shed much needed light on an unrecognized and forgotten hero of that awful period. Well written and incredibly detailed, it is a work that will have a distinguished place on my bookshelf.
My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this remarkable book.
September 16, 2023
The men sang with skill and refinement, but also with chilling emotion. There were none of the honeyed tones, the euphony of Rosebery’s other arrangements for the Jewish choir. It struck Aleks that the “Jewish Deathsong” was not a song at all, but a sob of despair, an elegy created by one of them for all of them. Rosebery, its author, burned with intensity, singing in his special lead falsetto to guide this group of anguished, suffering men.
I am not sure how you can read accounts of the Holocaust and not sob throughout. I loved this author’s voice and style and he did an amazing job of relating on small story on the scale of millions of stories lost, about music, something so universal and hardwired into our brain, that can unite and inspire and energize and remind. I am sure there are internet available recordings, but I didn’t listen to them, maybe someday I will. I have always thought I could not actually pay my respects in the concentration camps, I might faint from sorrow and anxiety, even though I have never fainted before. I did pay my respects to the Cambodian genocide at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields, so I might be able to after all. It just feels more personal since I have German ethnicity in my bones and veins and muscles.
Czechs, Germans, Poles, Frenchmen came to Aleks, sometimes in the barracks after working hours, sometimes out of doors, discreetly appealing to him to include their camp creation in the annals of his mind. “Aleks,” they would say, “do you have some room in your archive?” He would close his eyes and respond, “Dictate it to me.” Sometimes, a man might come back to him a month later to check if he had memorized his song accurately. Aleks welcomed the challenge because he could always reproduce the songs. Aleks memorized each line that a prisoner brought him, each comma, each semicolon, each dramatic pause, exactly as the hypnotist Roob had taught him to do in 1926 after the shock of a live wire destroyed his ability to speak. Over time, as Aleks memorized more and more songs, it felt as though an octopus of camp culture undulated within him, ever expanding as the hatred and harm and the most intimate longings of so many prisoners filled his being.
Aleksander Kulisiewicz, written mostly here as Aleks, was not Jewish, was a Polish college student, and spoke out against Hitler and was sent to the concentrations camps for very minor articles and activity. I hesitated at first to read this book about a non-Jewish survivor since there is so much more amplification needed of the groups that were targeted, but it really is about the camps in general, the vast sweep of countries represented, and a man with no formal training in music with a gargantuan talent for memorization who listened and heard so many people sing their last words and want their last songs to be memorialized.
No matter the subject or literary quality, Aleks believed that each creation held an absolute truth, an urgent testimony, be it appalling or uplifting, created by a human under circumstances as bleak and grim as anyone could have imagined. And he struggled to preserve these testimonies at all costs. Aleks knew that these men had become pawns of the German state, as had he, useful only until the SS had wrung out of them every last bit of their strength. For many of them, a song or poem might be the only thing that remained—the sole evidence of a life lived.
His feats of memorization are extraordinary; there was no paper or pens readily available in camp and people were killed if the guards found any. What a testimony and triumph of the human spirit that this was possible in the most atrocious conditions in our history. Really well done, and a while it was hard to read: the camps, the torture, what was done and seen, and survival did not mean a happy ending, it is necessary and so important.
An example from a man who died in the camps: Henryk Tadeusz Nejman:
Silence on a Hospital Cot
Daily soars the sheer sun across the heavens,
At night soar the mute stars and lifeless doom.
Against the windowpane a fly buzzes, the lazy grouch;
Thus stretches the emptiness, sprawls the boredom
The hours are dragging on, moments pass each other by,
Only hunger, hunger (my God!) piercing your insides.
Seldom a thought will flash somewhere, a spark will burn in hallowed fire,
Hallowed be the memory, that which is nothing.
Around and around glides the wistfulness. With a deranged stride
Life ever escapes into the distance—silently, furtively, sideways.
Daily come down the rains or soars the sun,
At night in mute silence exists the lifeless doom
In a world where Germany never launched a war or built concentration camps or attempted to exterminate or enslave whole groups of people, Henryk’s verses would have appeared in literary magazines.
I am not sure how you can read accounts of the Holocaust and not sob throughout. I loved this author’s voice and style and he did an amazing job of relating on small story on the scale of millions of stories lost, about music, something so universal and hardwired into our brain, that can unite and inspire and energize and remind. I am sure there are internet available recordings, but I didn’t listen to them, maybe someday I will. I have always thought I could not actually pay my respects in the concentration camps, I might faint from sorrow and anxiety, even though I have never fainted before. I did pay my respects to the Cambodian genocide at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields, so I might be able to after all. It just feels more personal since I have German ethnicity in my bones and veins and muscles.
Czechs, Germans, Poles, Frenchmen came to Aleks, sometimes in the barracks after working hours, sometimes out of doors, discreetly appealing to him to include their camp creation in the annals of his mind. “Aleks,” they would say, “do you have some room in your archive?” He would close his eyes and respond, “Dictate it to me.” Sometimes, a man might come back to him a month later to check if he had memorized his song accurately. Aleks welcomed the challenge because he could always reproduce the songs. Aleks memorized each line that a prisoner brought him, each comma, each semicolon, each dramatic pause, exactly as the hypnotist Roob had taught him to do in 1926 after the shock of a live wire destroyed his ability to speak. Over time, as Aleks memorized more and more songs, it felt as though an octopus of camp culture undulated within him, ever expanding as the hatred and harm and the most intimate longings of so many prisoners filled his being.
Aleksander Kulisiewicz, written mostly here as Aleks, was not Jewish, was a Polish college student, and spoke out against Hitler and was sent to the concentrations camps for very minor articles and activity. I hesitated at first to read this book about a non-Jewish survivor since there is so much more amplification needed of the groups that were targeted, but it really is about the camps in general, the vast sweep of countries represented, and a man with no formal training in music with a gargantuan talent for memorization who listened and heard so many people sing their last words and want their last songs to be memorialized.
No matter the subject or literary quality, Aleks believed that each creation held an absolute truth, an urgent testimony, be it appalling or uplifting, created by a human under circumstances as bleak and grim as anyone could have imagined. And he struggled to preserve these testimonies at all costs. Aleks knew that these men had become pawns of the German state, as had he, useful only until the SS had wrung out of them every last bit of their strength. For many of them, a song or poem might be the only thing that remained—the sole evidence of a life lived.
His feats of memorization are extraordinary; there was no paper or pens readily available in camp and people were killed if the guards found any. What a testimony and triumph of the human spirit that this was possible in the most atrocious conditions in our history. Really well done, and a while it was hard to read: the camps, the torture, what was done and seen, and survival did not mean a happy ending, it is necessary and so important.
An example from a man who died in the camps: Henryk Tadeusz Nejman:
Silence on a Hospital Cot
Daily soars the sheer sun across the heavens,
At night soar the mute stars and lifeless doom.
Against the windowpane a fly buzzes, the lazy grouch;
Thus stretches the emptiness, sprawls the boredom
The hours are dragging on, moments pass each other by,
Only hunger, hunger (my God!) piercing your insides.
Seldom a thought will flash somewhere, a spark will burn in hallowed fire,
Hallowed be the memory, that which is nothing.
Around and around glides the wistfulness. With a deranged stride
Life ever escapes into the distance—silently, furtively, sideways.
Daily come down the rains or soars the sun,
At night in mute silence exists the lifeless doom
In a world where Germany never launched a war or built concentration camps or attempted to exterminate or enslave whole groups of people, Henryk’s verses would have appeared in literary magazines.
February 24, 2024
Nonfiction isn't my usual choice of literature, (historical fiction is as close as I get) but occasionally I step out of my comfort zone and jump into the deep end of the pool. I'm not a swimmer, in fact, water terrifies me--the thought of a hard surface further than 5' beneath my feet, in my mind, is like being buried alive . . . in water. That's how I feel (sometimes) while reading a work of nonfiction.
However, there are a handful of topics that need to be told in their purest, unadulterated form. The Holocaust falls into that category. Author Makana Eyre's, Sing, Memory: The Remarkable Story of the Man Who Saved the Music of the Nazi Camps, is fully committed in his endeavor to reiterate the memories of one survivor named Aleksander Kulisiewicz, an amateur (non-Jewish) Polish musician with an eidetic memory. During his imprisonment at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, he happened upon another prisoner (a Jewish Pole) named Rosebery d'Arguto, a former conductor and music aficionado. Their passion for music was the nexus of their friendship and the seed that kept their hope for survival alive.
Eyre's account of Aleks (and Rosebery's) story is an arduous one, but not so because of poor writing--in fact, he includes 13 pages of Index, 58 pages of (chapter-by-chapter) Notes, 5 pages of Selected Bibliography, and 8 pages of photo reproductions to use as reference tools. Reading Sing, Memory is a strenuous effort, because the author doesn't dilute the colors, sounds, smells or terrors of what it was like to live as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration / work camp. You'll work hard reading this one, and your heart will ache.
"TRUTH is stranger than fiction" (Lord Byron) . . . so is NONFICTION. I agree.
Four Stars
However, there are a handful of topics that need to be told in their purest, unadulterated form. The Holocaust falls into that category. Author Makana Eyre's, Sing, Memory: The Remarkable Story of the Man Who Saved the Music of the Nazi Camps, is fully committed in his endeavor to reiterate the memories of one survivor named Aleksander Kulisiewicz, an amateur (non-Jewish) Polish musician with an eidetic memory. During his imprisonment at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, he happened upon another prisoner (a Jewish Pole) named Rosebery d'Arguto, a former conductor and music aficionado. Their passion for music was the nexus of their friendship and the seed that kept their hope for survival alive.
Eyre's account of Aleks (and Rosebery's) story is an arduous one, but not so because of poor writing--in fact, he includes 13 pages of Index, 58 pages of (chapter-by-chapter) Notes, 5 pages of Selected Bibliography, and 8 pages of photo reproductions to use as reference tools. Reading Sing, Memory is a strenuous effort, because the author doesn't dilute the colors, sounds, smells or terrors of what it was like to live as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration / work camp. You'll work hard reading this one, and your heart will ache.
"TRUTH is stranger than fiction" (Lord Byron) . . . so is NONFICTION. I agree.
Four Stars
April 9, 2024
Aleksander Kulisiewicz, a Polish law student, who was arrested as a non-Jewish political prisoner in May 1940, at age 22, was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Blessed with the skill to memorize information. An amateur musician, he wrote and performed music and poems at the camp, and his life was changed when he met Jewish choral conductor Rosebery D’Arguto, who became his musical mentor. Throughout his time in the camp he memorized the works of his fellow prisoners.
"No matter the subject or literary quality, Aleks believed that each creation held an absolute truth, an urgent testimony, be it appalling or uplifting, created by a human under circumstances as bleak and grim as anyone could have imagined. And he struggled to preserve these testimonies at all costs. Aleks knew that these men had become pawns of the German state, as had he, useful only until the SS had wrung out of them every last bit of their strength. For many of them, a song or poem might be the only thing that remained - the sole evidence of a life lived."
After liberation he suffered through failed marriages, but spent the remainder of his life collecting more music, poetry, and art, and performing pieces to keep the memory of those lost alive.
I had heard about the orchestras that played in the camps, but knew nothing of the songs and poetry created during that period.
"No matter the subject or literary quality, Aleks believed that each creation held an absolute truth, an urgent testimony, be it appalling or uplifting, created by a human under circumstances as bleak and grim as anyone could have imagined. And he struggled to preserve these testimonies at all costs. Aleks knew that these men had become pawns of the German state, as had he, useful only until the SS had wrung out of them every last bit of their strength. For many of them, a song or poem might be the only thing that remained - the sole evidence of a life lived."
After liberation he suffered through failed marriages, but spent the remainder of his life collecting more music, poetry, and art, and performing pieces to keep the memory of those lost alive.
I had heard about the orchestras that played in the camps, but knew nothing of the songs and poetry created during that period.
April 12, 2024
I am the son of holocaust survivors, therefore I am experiencing this book through a lens only those who have been associated with similar tragedies will experience. This a deep and detailed book that does not allow you to rush through the pages. In fact, at times I found it to be crawling and frustrating. Yet now that I have finished reading it I believe that the tempo the book forces you to embrace has a reason. Namely, while totally different from the experience the characters in this book endured, it helped me understand to how time did not move for these people from 1939 through 1945. Time stood still for these souls tortured, abused , many killed. They had no days, no nights … all they had was doing all they could to survive and keep surviving.
This is an excruciatingly painful book to read but one that should you decide to read it will teach you many lessons about survival and resilience, love and compassion by some of the detained men, women and children; while at the other end you will be appalled by the cruelty and horrific behavior by German military in charge of these concentration camps.
The two main characters in this story provided the people they could reach with brief moments of tranquility and also a record of their accomplishments, the music and poetry that this books tells us about.
This is an excruciatingly painful book to read but one that should you decide to read it will teach you many lessons about survival and resilience, love and compassion by some of the detained men, women and children; while at the other end you will be appalled by the cruelty and horrific behavior by German military in charge of these concentration camps.
The two main characters in this story provided the people they could reach with brief moments of tranquility and also a record of their accomplishments, the music and poetry that this books tells us about.
December 31, 2024
Aleksander Kulisiewicz "Aleks" grew up on the Polish/Czech border, spoke more than 4 languages fluently and was a strong and unusual singer with a prodigal memory. In September, 1939, Germany invaded Poland from the West and quickly advanced through the country. The Soviet Union, allied with Germany, invaded Poland from the East. Czechoslovakia, already conquered by the German Nazis also invaded through Aleks area and quickly conquered his town of Cieszyn.
Aleks came to the notice of the Nazis through his active resistance and was sent to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp outside of Berlin, Germany, in September 1939 where he remained until April, 1945.
The Nazi concentration camps contained many talented musicians and poets. Life in the camps was dangerous and unpredictable. Original music was composed and performed in secret in the camps to relieve the tedium of the work and the uncertainty of life itself.
Aleks memorized the music of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and put it down on paper immediately after his survival from the camps. He also dedicated the rest of his life to documenting and performing music from all the camps to anyone who would hear it until his death.
Aleks came to the notice of the Nazis through his active resistance and was sent to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp outside of Berlin, Germany, in September 1939 where he remained until April, 1945.
The Nazi concentration camps contained many talented musicians and poets. Life in the camps was dangerous and unpredictable. Original music was composed and performed in secret in the camps to relieve the tedium of the work and the uncertainty of life itself.
Aleks memorized the music of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and put it down on paper immediately after his survival from the camps. He also dedicated the rest of his life to documenting and performing music from all the camps to anyone who would hear it until his death.
May 15, 2023
This is a solid but somewhat plodding account of Jewish music-making in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during WWII. Eyre focuses first on Rosebery d’Arguto, a professional musician who organized and led choruses and instrumentalists in performing newly-composed songs. D'Arguto died in the camp, but one of his fellow prisoners was Aleksander Kulisiewicz, a non-Jew who appears to have had an exceptional memory for lyrics, and, one assumes, melody and harmony. Kulisiewicz remembered hundreds of songs composed in the cap, which he dictated after being freed. Eyre focuses on the lyrics far more than the rest of the music, but then this is a book for general readers, not musicians or music scholars. She also follows Kulisiewicz's life after the liberation of the camps, in which he never recovered from the trauma he suffered. The emphasis on lyrics is a little unbalancing, especially as there are no musical examples or links to musical examples to actually hear the pieces, and the writing is a often uneven, but I'm sure plenty of people will find the story inspiring.
January 8, 2024
This was a really difficult book to read.
“… his culture was completely and incontrovertibly his. “
Aleksander Kulisiewicz was a Polish law student who studied music in his free time. Through his anti-Communist writings, he was detained in 1939 in Poland, and was eventually transferred to Sachenhausen. Here, he mingled with other Europeans and a small Jewish population. One person he met was Rosebery D’Arguto, a Jewish man who lived in disguise in Germany and conducted a German working class choir. D’Arguto discreetly conducted a Jewish choir inside Sachenhausen, and was eventually transferred to another facility and the two never met again. Kulisiewicz made it his mission to collect and reproduce the music and poetry of the prisoners, even as society began to move away from the memory of the war and towards the future.
“… his culture was completely and incontrovertibly his. “
Aleksander Kulisiewicz was a Polish law student who studied music in his free time. Through his anti-Communist writings, he was detained in 1939 in Poland, and was eventually transferred to Sachenhausen. Here, he mingled with other Europeans and a small Jewish population. One person he met was Rosebery D’Arguto, a Jewish man who lived in disguise in Germany and conducted a German working class choir. D’Arguto discreetly conducted a Jewish choir inside Sachenhausen, and was eventually transferred to another facility and the two never met again. Kulisiewicz made it his mission to collect and reproduce the music and poetry of the prisoners, even as society began to move away from the memory of the war and towards the future.
April 16, 2023
A very good book about an amazing young man and his experience in a concentration camp during WWII. Because of his ability to memorize and his singing ability he was able to memorize songs from the camps and soon this became a mission for him to save these songs and preserve the memories of those who did not survive. His experience scarred him for the rest of his life, but he remained true to his mission. This book should be made into a musical play! I found the book to be very informative and would recommend it to all who like to read about history, especially almost forgotten history
August 13, 2023
The story of a man who spent 5 years in Nazi camp but survived. Music was his passion. He had an uncanny ability to memorize songs & poetry from the camp singing that went on hidden from the Nazis. He also composed and performed. After liberation, he devoted himself to preserving these songs, at the expense of a married family life. He lived for 37 years after the liberation, totally absorbed in his cause. Haunted, tortured by his memories—yet he successfully preservare the songs. Finally his archives arrived after his death in 1982 at the U.S.Holocaust Memorial Museum.
December 26, 2023
This book was phenomenally written. It evoked a visceral emotion in me when I read about Alek's and the other camp survivors' personal experiences surviving in Auschwitz and Sanschenausen concentration camps. The power of music cannot be understated. Music was an invaluable solace in the survivors' lives during their duration in the concentration camps. I rate this book a solid 10 out of 10 because of the erudite attention to detail and emotion.
September 7, 2024
I listened to a digital audio edition of Sing, Memory.
Music is not something I think about when I think about Nazi cams so I was interested to listen to the book.
I still have trouble understanding what I am listening when I listen to audio books sometimes however I did think the book was OK.
After listening to the book I will remember the hard work that Alek's put in a lot of work to preserve the music at a huge cost to his personal life. And know I know there is music from the Nazi camps.
Music is not something I think about when I think about Nazi cams so I was interested to listen to the book.
I still have trouble understanding what I am listening when I listen to audio books sometimes however I did think the book was OK.
After listening to the book I will remember the hard work that Alek's put in a lot of work to preserve the music at a huge cost to his personal life. And know I know there is music from the Nazi camps.
November 6, 2023
A beautiful story based on true events, and chilling, and filled with Hope, despite being about the Holocaust. It is difficult to know what was fiction, and what wasn’t. Perhaps historical fiction is not for me, as I wanted footnotes, or some other “tell” to know when the author was taking liberties, and when it was true to history. I would have loved to hear this read aloud, with audio inputted for all of the choral works written,mentioned, and performed throughout.
February 13, 2024
The writing was really good, similar to that of Unbroken. I honestly would have never considered anything creative to come from concentration camps and it was eye opening, sorrowful, yet inspiring. It made me think a lot of how we endure adversities, the role music has in cultivating history and legacy, and how trauma affects our relationships.
June 21, 2025
4.5/5 rounded up. This is a really good book about a non-Jewish victim of the Nazis who saw his mission in the camps to preserve the music and poetry of his friends who died there. Of note, I really appreciate a biography of a camp survivor that shows that that person was both deeply traumatized by his experience and a deeply flawed person. This kind of portrait is humanizing and real.
July 13, 2023
One of the most difficult books I’ve ever read regarding the Holocaust. There were times I simply had to set it down because of the grief I felt for the victims in these camps. It greatly demonstrates the power of evil and injustice while juxtaposing with the power of music and art.
August 10, 2023
This book is a mind blowing price of work. All the research and work that went into it to tell a story of several amazing individuals - primarily Aleksander Kulisiewicz, whose story of survival, his memory and dedication is truly beyond anything I had ever read or experienced.
June 6, 2024
This was a heavy read for me; the book reads like a text book, however, it was an incredible and interesting story of a passionate man. I’m grateful to have read of his dedication to rescue culture from the concentration camps and recite it to live on.
June 19, 2024
Slowly paced, but for a reason. This is a deeply powerful account of life before, during, and after WWII. The reader comes to understand the main character's passion for preserving the music, experiences, and emotions of the concentration camps.
July 20, 2023
extremely unique story, and also include the standard comments about how deep music runs in humans etc
July 28, 2023
Though nothing could ever remedy the tragedy of these historical events, Eyre's report on Aleks' work honours those who had everything taken from them by reminding us of their humanity.
September 26, 2023
To read about the world of the concentration camps, the music, the support within the prisoners was an amazing story.
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May 12, 2024A powerful, important story
June 26, 2024
Fascinating!
January 8, 2025
Haunting and compelling. Listening to his recordings on YouTube, and knowing the lyrics and stories behind the songs, was haunting. An important book.
April 10, 2025
A beautiful, difficult book that is worth the read. Nonfiction but written like a novel. Very well written.
August 20, 2025
I think I’m just inevitably going to be disappointed by narrative pop history.
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