The Aleksander Kulisiewicz Collection at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: An Introduction

Envisioned by its founders as a storehouse of historical evidence — material artifacts, written and oral testimonies, photographs and films — the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC is the repository of a significant archive of music salvaged from the Nazi ghettos and camps. This paper focuses on the Museum’s single largest music collection, that of the Polish camp survivor Aleksander Kulisiewicz (1918—1982). A native of Kraków, Poland, who spent over five years as a political prisoner in Sachsenhausen, Kulisiewicz in later life grew obsessed with documenting the repertoire that his fellow Poles and an international cadre of musicians, authors, and artistes created and performed while captives of the Germans. The collection he amassed during his final decades consists of hundreds of songs, choral works and instrumental pieces gathered from survivor memoirs, manuscripts, and multiple recorded interviews with former inmates. Approximately 70,000 pages of documentation encompass music-related artworks, biographical details of camp poets and composers, and copious additional corroborating material. Apart from providing an overview of the collection, the paper will discuss Kulisiewicz’s cultural and intellectual background in interwar Poland, and postwar career as a performer, activist and author. Music illustrations will be drawn from Kulisiewicz’s archive of sound recordings, including selections from his own series of autobiographical songs written in Sachsenhausen. A final set of musical examples demonstrates the collection’s utility as a resource for musicians and programmers seeking overlooked, yet revivable repertoire, and for composers inspired to create new works based on “rescued” music preserved in the Museum’s archive.

Aleksander Kulisiewicz, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Sachsenhausen, Concentration Camps, Music, World War II, Resistance, Political Prisoners, Collections, Archives

1. Aleksander Kulisiewicz collection, 1939—1986; Document, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), accession Number: 1992.A.0034.1, RG Number: RG-55. Available at: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn546848 (accessed 08.08.2020).

2. Kulisiewicz A. “Jak umierał moj głos” [JUM] : Aleksander Kulisiewicz sound recordings, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). USHMM RG-91.0202. JUM Series, tape 9A. Translation: Barbara Milewski. Available at: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn712176 (accessed 08.08.2020).

3. Milewski B., Werb B. Aleksander Kulisiewicz, Music and the Holocaust : portal. Available at: http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/fr/places/camps/centraleurope/sachsenhausen/kulisiewiczaleksander/ (accessed 08.08.2020).

4. Strzelewicz K. Zapis : Opowieść Aleksandra Kulisiewicza. Krakow : Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1984. 216 p.

5. Woods W. Poland: Eagle in the East: a Survey of Modern Times. New York : Hill and Wang, 1968, 272 p.

6. Songs from the Depths of Hell sung in German, Polish, Ukrainian, Yiddish by Aleksander Kulisiewicz: [album] / Liner Notes by P. Wortsman. Folkways FSS 37700, 1979. 16 p. Available at: https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW37700.pdf (accessed 08.08.2020).

7. Kulisiewicz A. Polskie piesni obozowe, 1939—1945 : unpublished typescript, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Aleksander Kulisiewicz Collection. Р. 1980.

8. Aleksander Kulisiewicz collection, 1939—1986, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). RG-55. 97 boxes. Available at: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn546848 (accessed 08.08.2020).

9. Aleksander Kulisiewicz Collection, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). M series : Research Materials. Accession number: 1992.A.0034. Translation by Krzysztof Kulisiewicz.

10. Aleksander Kulisiewicz Collection, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). USHMM RG-55.011*01 : Documents relating to “Sonderaktion Krakau”.

11. Kulisiewicz A. Ballads and Broadsides. Songs from Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, 1940—1945. Liner Notes by B. Milewski, B. Werb. Washington : United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2008. P. 31.

12. Czarny Böhm : Aleksander Kulisiewcz with unidentified accordionist, United States Holoсaust Memorial Museum: Music of the Holoсaust : Highlights from the Collection. Available at: https://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/music/detail.php?content=bohm (accessed 08.08.2020).

13. The Holocaust Cantata, Donald McCullough, website. Available at: https://www.donaldmccullough.com/products/holocaust-cantata-songs-from-the-camps/ (accessed 08.08.2020).

14. The Striped Ones, The Holocaust Cantata : Songs from the Camps. Master Chorale of Washington Chamber Singers. Director: Donald McCullough. Albany Records, 2006. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zInOpoatbY (accessed 08.08.2020).

15. Milewski B. More Music for the Kinohalle! Józef Kropiński’s Compositions in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, The OREL Foundation: site. Available at: http://orelfoundation.org/journal/journalArticle/more_music_for_the_kinohalle (accessed 08.08.2020).

16. Smętna Kolęda, Encyclopedia of Music composed in Concentration Camps (1933—1935). Director: Francesco Lotoro. Kz Musik, Vol. 11. Musikstrasse, 2008. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eVT_ckimbc (accessed 08.08.2020).

17. Polka Zygmus: sung by Laura Aprile, Claudio Rotundi, Giuseppe Rutigliano, Daniele Miatto; director: Francesco Lotoro, Kz Musik, Vol. 9. Musikstrasse, 2008. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnsNJHoCrIU (accessed 08.08.2020).

18. Black Boehm : from Camp Songs by Paul Schoenfield, Erich Parce, baritone and MOR ensemble. Live performance (October 7, 2019. Seattle, Washington). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYBUTSsO2BI (accessed 08.08.2020).