Musical Recollections from Paris: Szymon Laks' Postwar Testimonies to Polish Jewish History

• In Event: The Transfer and Reconfiguration of Memory through Music

Abstract

In 1961 the Polish Jewish composer and survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp Szymon Laks began working on his art song “Elegia żydowskich miasteczek” to reflect on Polish Jewish history. Laks, who had lived in France since before the war but maintained strong cultural ties with his native country, was particularly concerned about the politics of Holocaust memory in postwar Poland. Ultimately, I argue that Laks turned musical composition into a testimonial site to negotiate the boundaries between history, memory, and forgetting. He thus created a commemorative space for Polish Jews during a time when that perspective was nearly absent from public discourse.

Author

• Nicolette van den Bogerd, Indiana U Bloomington