Singing for Survival

Book excerpt: Gila Flam offers a penetrating insider's look at a musical culture previously unexplored---the song repertoire created and performed in the Lodz ghetto of Poland. Drawing on interviews with survivors and on library and archival materials, the author illustrates the general themes of the Lodz repertoire and explores the nature of Holocaust song. Most of the songs are presented here for the first time. "An extremely accurate and valuable work. There is nothing like it in either the extensive holocaust literature or the ethnomusicology literature." -- Mark Slobin, author of Chosen Voices: The Story of the American Cantorate