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Tango of Death: The Creation of a Holocaust Legend
Series: - Jews, Judaism, and the Arts, Volume: 3
Author:
A legend that captures the imagination of audiences and shapes representations of the Holocaust is that in Nazi concentration camps Jewish musicians were forced to play a Tango of Death as men, women and children made their way to the gas chambers. This book traces the origins of this legend to a little known concentration camp in Ukraine where musicians were forced to perform a Jewish tango at executions before they themselves were murdered. By reconstructing the creation of this legend, the book shows how the actual history is hidden, distorted, or even lost altogether.
Willem de Haan, Ph.D. (1989) is Professor Emeritus at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. He published on history of crimes against humanity and genocide: ‘Knowing what we know now: International Crimes in Historical Perspective’,
Journal of International Criminal Justice (2015).
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
1 Memory and Myth
1 Serendipity
2 Legend and Myth
3 Holocaust Legends
4 Methodology
5 Ethics
2 Music in the Camps
1 Nazi Concentration Camps
2 Music in the Camps
3 Singing
4 Camp Orchestras
5 Purpose of Camp Music
6 Repertoire
7 Memories of Wagner
8 Wagner Myths
3 The Tango of Death
1 Singing Tangos
2 Three Versions
3 Which One Is It?
4 The Orchestra of Death
1 Nuremberg
2 Provenance
3 The Photographer
4 The Photograph
5 Location
6 The Court
7 Returning to the Iconic Image
5 The Death of the Orchestra
1 Reasons for Doubt
2 Fictionalizing Testimony
6 The Fugue of Death
1 The Poet
2 The Poem
3 The Title
4 Inspiration
5 The Legend
7 Preserving History
1 Imagining Horror
2 Capturing the Imagination
3 Memorializing and Obfuscating
4 Visualizing the Tango of Death
5 Preserving History
Literature
List of Illustrations
1 Memory and Myth
1 Serendipity
2 Legend and Myth
3 Holocaust Legends
4 Methodology
5 Ethics
2 Music in the Camps
1 Nazi Concentration Camps
2 Music in the Camps
3 Singing
4 Camp Orchestras
5 Purpose of Camp Music
6 Repertoire
7 Memories of Wagner
8 Wagner Myths
3 The Tango of Death
1 Singing Tangos
2 Three Versions
3 Which One Is It?
4 The Orchestra of Death
1 Nuremberg
2 Provenance
3 The Photographer
4 The Photograph
5 Location
6 The Court
7 Returning to the Iconic Image
5 The Death of the Orchestra
1 Reasons for Doubt
2 Fictionalizing Testimony
6 The Fugue of Death
1 The Poet
2 The Poem
3 The Title
4 Inspiration
5 The Legend
7 Preserving History
1 Imagining Horror
2 Capturing the Imagination
3 Memorializing and Obfuscating
4 Visualizing the Tango of Death
5 Preserving History
Literature
The book will be of interest to readers in the fields of Holocaust studies, Jewish history and culture, history and memory studies, cultural history, musicology and the history of music.