Know the score?

Which work, composed in the first decade of the twentieth-century and still in the repertoire today, has a score that calls for chorus, soloists, organ and a large orchestra including small and large gongs, antique cymbals, glockenspiel, tambourine, triangle and an ancient Jewish instrument with religous connections?
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Stranger music from Leonard Cohen

I'm a big fan of Leonard Cohen's words and music. There is an interesting article in today's Independent by Philip Glass about his settings of Cohen's poetry in his new work Book of Longing. And here is some inimitable Leonard Cohen prose:

ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT ADOLPH EICHMANN



EYES:......................Medium
HAIR:......................Medium
WEIGHT:....................Medium
HEIGHT:....................Medium
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES....None
NUMBER OF FINGERS:.........Ten
NUMBER OF TOES.............Ten
INTELLIGENCE...............Medium

What did you expect?
Talons?
Oversize incisors?
Green Saliva?

Madness?

By Leonard Cohen, from his Stranger Music, Selected Poems and Songs (McCelland& Stewart ISBN 077102231).Now read about a Holocaust opera's rare performance.
Biography of Eichmann here. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Whosoever rescues a single soul ...

Refugee Week is a UK-wide programme of arts, cultural and educational events that celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and encourages a better understanding between communities; it starts on 18th June. The Kindertransport sculpture is by Flor Kent, and stands in front of Liverpool Street Station. This is the London station that the Jewish children arrived at after the ferry crossing from mainland Europe in 1938 and 1939. Now read more about Kindertransport.
Photographs by Pliable. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Harvard was decidedly conservative

Harvard's political culture in the early 1920s was decidedly conservative. Soon after Robert Oppenheimer's arrival, the university imposed a quota to restrict the number of Jewish student. (By 1922, the Jewish student population had risen to twenty-one percent.) In 1924, the Harvard Crimson reported on its front age that the university's former president Charles W. Eliot had publicly declared it "unfortunate" that growing numbers of the "Jewish race" were intermarrying with Christians. Few such marriages, he said, turned out well, and because biologists had determined that Jews are "prepotent" the children of such marriages "will look like Jews only." While Harvard accepted a few Negroes, President A. Lawrence Lowell staunchly refused to allow them to reside in the freshman dormitories with whites.

From American Prometheus, the Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Now read about a Harvard alumni with musical connections, who had strong views on Jews.
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Dresden February 13th 2007

Nazi numbers were down to 1,600 – among them extremists from Hungary, the UK, Austria and France – for the 2007 annual fascist commemoration of the Allied air raids on Dresden in February 1945. For several years the event has been a key date in the German and international nazi calendar. Two years ago more than 7,000 fascists attended.

As usual the nazis marched with the slogan “No bombing Holocaust ever again”, ridiculing the victims of the real Holocaust, Hitler’s industrialised mass murder of Jews, Roma and Sinti. This year the demonstration was accompanied by an “action week” organised by an alliance of all Dresden’s rightwing extremists outside the National Democratic Party (NPD) under the leadership of “Free Nationalist”. The NPD’s leaders attended the march.

The nazis were faced with a strong protest from 1,000 mostly young anti-fascists who repeatedly blocked their path, delaying them and finally forcing them to shorten their demonstration. Some of the more militant nazis tried violently to break out of their own demonstration but ran into conflict with the police and anti-fascists. To some extent they succeeded but ended up fighting with police and anti-fascists.

Scandalously, however, the police this time allowed those nazis who had not already gone home in frustration at the anti-fascist blockade to demonstrate directly opposite the New Synagogue. Nevertheless, anti-fascists, encouraged by their success in ruining the nazi’s evening, are optimistic about preventing next year’s demonstration.

Frank Buschmann reports from Dresden via Antifaschistisches Infoblatt, Antifa-Net , and International Searchlight.

Now read about, and see, Dresden, 13th February 1945.
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Childhood luggage

'In 1939 at the age of fifteen Gert Berliner travelled on a Kindertransport to Sweden. In his luggage was his toy monkey. Gert's parents Paul and Sophie remained in Berlin. They were deported to Auschwitz in 1943 and murdered there. A few days before the deportation they wrote one last time to their son: "Chin up, with God's help we will see each other again." The postcard that Gert wrote to his parents from Stockholm in 1944 was sent back.

Gert Berliner emigrated in 1947 from Sweden to the US. He became a painter, filmmaker and photographer.'

Caption from an exhibit at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. American architect Daniel Libeskind and the museum curators have created something so profoundly moving that it defies my words or pictures. All I can say is visit it if you possibly can.


The story of the flight of children from despotism in the 20th century is particularly relevant as Christmas approaches. Here is a brief history of Kindertransport, and a viewpoint on the Jewish tragedy, taken verbatim from the Kindertransport Association web site.

The Nazi persecution of Jews started in earnest on November 9, 1938, the "Kristallnacht" (Night of the Broken Glass), when mobs destroyed synagogues, smashed Jewish stores, and beat up and humiliated Jews.

Hitler did not originally plan to exterminate Jews: he only wanted that Germany be free of Jews. The tragedy was that no country was willing to take them in, even when it was widely known what fate awaited them. For this, the world at large bears the guilt, the U.S. being one of the worst offenders. Thus the real problem facing most Jews in Central Europe was to find a country which would let them in.

The British Jewish Refugee Committee appealed to certain members of Parliament, and a debate was held in the House of Commons. It was agreed to admit to England an unspecified number of children up to age 17. A 50 pound bond had to be posted for each child, "to assure their ultimate resettlement." The children were to travel in sealed trains.The first transport left barely six weeks after the Kristallnacht, the last, just two days before war broke out (September 3, 1939), which put an end to the program. Approximately 10,000 children had made the trip.

When the children arrived in England, some were taken in by foster families, some went to orphanages or group homes, while some worked on farms. They were distributed throughout Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). Once there, they were at no more risk than the rest of the population. This was not inconsiderable since many towns were heavily bombed.

Mostly, the children were well-treated and grew up to develop close ties to their British hosts. A few were mistreated or abused. A number of the older children joined the British or Australian armed forces as soon as they reached 18, and joined the fight against the Nazis. Most of the children never saw their parents again. Of the 10,000, it is believed that 20-25% eventually made their way to the U.S. or Canada.

Web resources:
Kindertransport Associationthis link.
Jewish Museum Berlin
BBC Kindertransport page
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Take An Overgrown Path to The Year is '42 for a related story