Remembrance Day: eight songs to listen to today
“If understanding is impossible, knowing is necessary, because what has happened can return, consciences can once again be seduced and obscured: even ours”.
Primo Levi’s warning in “The Drowned and the Saved” must be at the center of our every day, even more so today, on the calendar date chosen by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 so as not to forget the horrors of the Shoah. Memory must be cultivated and many artists have made it a mission: here are some songs to listen to in these hours, for the Remembrance Day.
With God on Our Side – Bob Dylan
The tragedies touched by human history are at the center of Bob Dylan’s “With God on Our Side”: “When World War II ended we forgave the Germans, and we became friends, even though they killed six million people by burning them in ovens. Even the Germans now have God on their side.”
Angel of Death – Slayer
The protagonist of Slayer’s “Angel of Death” is the surgeon Josef Mengele, nicknamed the Angel of Death. A cruel account of the atrocious crimes committed during the Holocaust.
Auschwitz – Francesco Guccini
Probably the best known Italian song when it comes to Memory. Released as a single by Equipe 84 in 1966, “Auschwitz” is a song written by Francesco Guccini, who included it in “Folk beat n. 1” with the title “The song of the child in the wind (Auschwitz)”. After reading some books about the concentration camps, Guccini decided to write the song with a text narrated by two voices: the child in the concentration camp and the author who asks some rhetorical questions.
The Carmel of Echt – Franco Battiato
A song by another great Italian singer-songwriter, Franco Battiato, “Il carmelo di Echt” tells the story of the Jewish Edith Stein, who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite nun in the convent of Echt. Her choice did not stop the murderous ferocity of the Nazis who killed her in Auschwitz. The woman was made a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
Days without memory – Radiodervish
In “Days Without Memory”, Radiodervish invite us to reflect on the crimes and genocides against humanity that are often forgotten. They dream of the active construction of a living memory that is always in dialogue with current events, from a perspective of hope.
No Love Lost – Joy Division
Inspired by the novel “The Doll’s House” by Ka-Tzetnik, “No Love Lost” tells the story of the concentration camps and the presence of the Joy Division, the name of the group and translation of the German term Freudenabteilung, brothels inside the concentration camps built in barracks called “Joy Division”. The song was composed in the early period, when the group was still called Warsaw.
The diary of Anne Frank – The Chameleons
“The diary of Anne Frank” is a song with a short text written by Mino Reitano and sung by Livio Macchia of Camaleonti. This is the B side of two 45 rpm singles “Io per lei” and “Applausi” from 1968, later included in the album “Io per lei”, released in May of the same year and created with the violinists of the orchestra of the “La Scala” theater in Milan.
Dance me to the end of love – Leonard Cohen
“Dance me to the end of love” is a song written in 1984 by Leonard Cohen and is inspired by the story of the string quartet forced to perform in the concentration camps, at the crematoriums, while the horror was being perpetrated. Cohen described the song thus: “They played classical music while their fellow prisoners were killed and burned. So that music, Make me dance towards your beauty with a burning violinsignifies the beauty of the conclusion from life, the end of existence and of the fiery element in that conclusion. But it’s the same language we use to surrender to our love.”
Bonus track: “Story of Isaac”, in which Cohen himself uses the sacrifice of Isaac to underline the difference between Abraham and the Nazis. It is one of the most famous songs about the Shoah.
