An Archive of Emotions: Amateur Singing of German Jewish Migrants After 1933

Writing and performing amateur music was a popular practice among German-speaking Jews in emigration –local bards wrote countless songs about the struggles in their new homelands and performed them in front of their compatriots. However, this genre has not yet been explored as a historical source in the study of this migration. This paper examines songs written after 1933 by German-speaking Jews in countries of refuge across the globe. It proposes an analytical framework for reading these songs as historical sources in a multi-layered way. I argue that the lyrics, the melodies, and the context of their performance created a space for expressing and experiencing emotions.

In general, migrant’s musical practice constitutes a prime locus for exploring emotions. Jews who left Nazi Germany had to come to terms with the persecution they endured and the worry for their loved ones remaining behind. At the same time, they had to grapple with radical changes in their daily life. I suggest that one way to cope with this trying situation was for them to come together as a group and express their feelings creatively in songs and singing. Emotions come into play in various ways here: they are expressed in the text; they are evoked through participating in community events, and they are elicited by the use of well-known melodies (most of them are contrafacta, using existing melodies with new words). The performance of these songs in their mother tongue and according to well-known melodies is understood as a way to collectively bridge the chasm between their past and present and to affirm their community vis a vis the challenges of their new life post-migration. In doing this, the songs at hand served the immigrants in (re-)building a community by putting their emotions and experiences on stage and debating them collectively.