Re: Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

Sorry that most of this is not music, but some of it does refer to
music and I thought that it might be of interest to some list members.
Here is more information.

Bob

Various Artists
Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust
(Rhino)
The true terror of the 20th century has been that what militarism
couldn't destroy, the marketplace might erase. Luckily, the
1990s trend of oddly reassuring Holocaust blockbusters has been a spur
rather than an impediment to the substance and
diversity of Holocaust documentation. A major one is this four-CD set,
the only widely available oral history of the Holocaust
in this medium.
Many survivors, refugees, liberators, and descendants tell their
stories here, in reminiscences clearly allowed to take their
own course, without questionnaires or time-limits. Excerpts are
alternated for a lively and natural conversational feel, opening
out from a chorus of interwoven accounts to longer personal narratives
midway through the set.
The incidents of intimate atrocity and charity are what resonate most
deeply, re-personalizing events whose collective scale
could be overpowering at the time and numbing in retrospect. Unknown
stories of resistance and forgiveness offer hope, just
as a clear-eyed view of uneven endings -- lingering traumatic
associations, persistent post-war prejudice, the compromises
of survival -- guards against complacency.
The testimony of Japanese-American GIs who fought Hitler while their
own families lingered in the Stateside version of the
concentration camps, and of a Jewish chaplain's crusade to help
neglected survivors in defiance of U.S. Army red tape,
pre-empt self-congratulation while offering uplift and even humor.
A 100-page book adds engaging and challenging study material. A
well-played Jewish-traditional score complements the
quotes in a mood-setting but not manipulative way. However, occasional
sound-effects are annoyingly superfluous to the
speaker's own drama, and comic actor Elliott Gould makes a gauche and
intrusive narrator, though luckily a sporadic one. But
overall, this project pricelessly evokes the sweep of the century in
all its optimism and despair, becoming an important
handbook for understanding history, and maybe even continuing it.
Adam Sternberg McGovern

-----Original Message-----
From: Heschel3 (at) aol(dot)com <Heschel3 (at) aol(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Tuesday, March 21, 2000 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust


>
>what language is this in?  --j.
>
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jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+
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