Music of another world Book

Rejected for publication in Poland because its portrayal of the Nazis was "too sympathetic," Music of Another World presents a disturbing description of a phenomenon seldom mentioned in the literature of the Holocaust: the presence of music among the crematoria of Auschwitz." "Compassionate yet detached, ironic yet pitilessly honest, Szymon Laks, the kapellmeister of the Auschwitz orchestra, recounts the inconceivable spectacle of SS guards who grew teary at the sound of familiar melodies giving themselves up to the furies of extermination. Music led to the salvation of some; for others it led the way to the gas chambers. That Lak and others were capable of making music at Auschwitz is almost beyond belief. Yet they did so with meager resources and with full knowledge of what it would mean if they did not. Music of Another World is a testament not only to the human spirit but also to music itself, the beauty of which Laks and others honored even as the lives of so many were destroyed.