A. Rutkowski, Council for Protection of FightAnd Martyrdom Monuments, Warszawa,
Poland, “A Tribute”
“THE SOUND of HOPE –Music as Solace, Resistance and Salvation During the Holocaust andWorld War II”, by Kellie D. Brown. McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers: 2020, 310 pages, sc;$45. Visit, www.mcfarlandpub.com.Reviewed and highly, highly recommended by Don DeNevi“Music was life. We did not, could not, would not give up”, Alice Herz-Sommer is quoted inCaroline Stoessinger, “A Century of Wisdom”, 108, and few books have been published since1945 describe it as well as Kellie’s. She writes that during World War II, Nazi leadershiprecognized the power of music and chose to harness it into its evil of disempowering wholenations and their populations, in particular the Jewish people. But, as she so poignantly pointsout, music also emerged as a counterpoint to this insanity, including Nazi attempts to eithersilence or exploit it. Their victims, however, stubbornly clung to music, wherever and howeverthey could, to preserve their culture, to uplift the human spirit and triumph over systematicmurder, if possible.Author Kellie D. Brown, professor of music at Milligan University where she also serves as thechair of the music department and conductor of the Milligan Orchestra, has given us neophyteson the subject of music in the death camps during the Holocaust a magnificent gift, especiallyfor those of us who have already forgotten, or never cared in the first place. Her brilliant, albeit
painful, at times excruciatingly so, commingles musical connections and sad individual stories
from these murder sites through diaries, letters, memoirs, scholarly literature, and art pieces.Her tragic, somber, yet, endearing narrations actualize the power of music, reminding us of theimperative each of has never, never ever, forget, but to prevent another such period in timewhen new Hitlers, Himmlers, Heydrichs, and their Nazi contemporaries are spawned. Kelliewrites in her touching Preface, “I hope that the testimonies of so many I researched will serveas a reminder for our world of what hatred and prejudice can lead to and of how vital the artsremain in understanding the human condition and in spreading peace and goodness on a globalscale. I pray that I have brought honor to their memories as I have undertaken the holy callingof bearing witness to these stories and lifting back the folds of darkness to reveal moments oflight and beauty, to discover where grace abounds.”Thank you, Kellie. Thank you, great McFarland, for publishing her work. Never, NEVER Again.“Wherever there were violins, there was hope . . .”Amnon Weinstein, Israeli luthier, quoted in James
Grymes, Violins of Hope, 13
