Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity | Music, Holocaust Hidden and Protest

Nazi cultural policies toward the arts were foreshadowed in Weimar Germany, where party spokesmen denounced jazz, the musical avant-garde, and any work by a Jewish composer, regardless of category. With the advent of the Third Reich in January 1933, institutionalized harassment of Jews and antifascists began in earnest. A great many Jewish and politically dissident musicians fled Germany at this time, while those who remained were quickly forced from the public sphere. Facing unemployment and social isolation, a group of Berlin-area musicians, artists, and entertainers led by Dr. Kurt Singer established the Kulturbund deutscher Juden (Culture League of German Jews), an all-Jewish performance society, in the spring of 1933. With approval from the authorities (who reasoned the organization would serve to further separate Jews from the cultural mainstream), Kulturbund branches soon thrived in many Germany localities. The Kulturbund...