Overview
- Description
- 52 sound reels including various documentary tape recordings that Kulisiewicz compiled containing songs and poetry written in concentration camps, concerts by Kulisiewicz, interviews with Kulisiewicz and other musicians, and other radio or television programs.
- Date
-
Recorded:
approximately 1945-1982
- Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Krzysztof Kulisiewicz
- Contributor
-
Collector:
Aleksander T. Kulisiewicz
- Biography
-
Aleksander (Alexander) Kulisiewicz (1918-1982) was born in Kraków, Poland in 1918. He was a law student in German-occupied Poland when, in October 1939, he was denounced for antifascist writings, arrested by the Gestapo, and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin. An amateur singer and songwriter, Kulisiewicz composed 54 songs during more than five years of imprisonment at Sachsenhausen. After Russian troops liberated the camp on May 2, 1945, he remembered his songs, as well as those learned from fellow prisoners, dictating hundreds of pages of text to his attending nurse at a Polish infirmary. The majority of Kulisiewicz’s songs are darkly humorous ballads concerning the sadistic treatment of prisoners. Performed at secret gatherings, imbued with biting wit and subversive attitude, these songs helped inmates cope with their hunger and despair, raised morale, and offered hope of survival. Beyond this spiritual and psychological purport, Kulisiewicz also considered the camp song to be a form of documentation. “In the camp,” he wrote, “I tried under all circumstances to create verses that would serve as direct poetical reportage. I used my memory as a living archive. Friends came to me and dictated their songs.” In the 1950s, Kulisiewicz began amassing a private collection of music, poetry, and artwork created by camp prisoners, gathering this material through correspondence and hundreds of hours of recorded interviews. In the 1960s, he inaugurated a series of public recitals of his repertoire of camp songs, and issued several recordings. Kulisiewicz’s major project, a monumental study of the cultural life of the camps and the vital role music played as a means of survival for many prisoners, remained unpublished at the time of his death. He toured both Europe and the United States performing concerts of his works and the works of other Holocaust survivors until about 1980. He died in Kraków, Poland, on March 12, 1982. His archive is the largest extant collection of music composed in the camps.
- Format
- Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Audiotape (reel-to-reel); magnetic; 7 inches
Physical Details
- Language
- Polish
- Genre/Form
- Documentary.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- You do not require further permission from the Museum to access this archival media.
- Copyright
- Copyright Undetermined
- Conditions on Use
- Owner of copyright, if any, is undetermined. It is possible this is an orphan work. It is the responsibility of anyone interested in reproducing, broadcasting, or publishing content to determine copyright holder and secure permission, or perform a diligent Fair Use analysis.
Keywords & Subjects
- Personal Name
- Kulisiewicz, Aleksander Tytus, 1918-
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Recorded Sound Provenance
- Aleksander Kulisiewicz compiled the small archive of music, poetry, literature, photographs, and sound recordings during the years after his liberation from Sachsenhausen concentration camp at the end of World War II. Many of the reproductions in the collection are a result of Kulisiewicz borrowing materials from former fellow camp inmates and other camp survivors. He did this in order to build a research collection which he would use to compile and publish his anthology of concentration camp music and poetry. Kulisiewicz was unsuccessful in publishing the anthology before his death, and many of the drafts for the work are found in this collection. His son, Krzysztof Kulisiewicz, obtained the collection in 1989 and sold it to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the paper records, photographs, sound recordings, microfilm, and artifacts on March 2, 1992.
- Recorded Sound Source
- Krzysztof Kulisiewicz
- Record last modified:
- 2024-02-21 07:29:56
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn712185
Also in Aleksander Kulisiewicz collection
The Aleksander Kulisiewicz collection contains sound recordings, objects, microfilms, correspondence, music scores and notation, personal narratives, artwork, poetry, manuscripts, research notes, photograph, negatives, and various other documents compiled by Aleksander Kulisiewicz from 1945 until the time of his death in 1982. The materials in the collection relate to a variety of Holocaust topics, but mainly music, poetry, art, and theater in the concentration camps during World War II. Kulisiewicz compiled the small archive of music, poetry, literature, photographs, and sound recordings during the years after his liberation from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at the end of World War II. Many of the reproductions in the collection are a result of Kulisiewicz borrowing materials from former fellow camp inmates and other camp survivors. He did this in order to build a research collection, which he would use to compile and publish his anthology of concentration camp music and poetry. Kulisiewicz was unsuccessful in publishing the anthology before his death but drafts for the work are found in this collection.
Black plastic pipe stem
Object
Cigarette holder
Object
Cigarette lighter
Object
Identification bracelet
Object
Handbag
Object
Identification card holder
Object
Accoustic guitar and bag
Object
Aleksander Kulisiewicz collection, 1939-1986
Document
The Alexander Kulisiewicz collection contains microfilms, correspondence, music scores and notation, personal narratives, artwork, poetry, manuscripts, research notes, photograph, negatives, and various other documents compiled by Aleksander Kulisiewicz from 1945 until the time of his death in 1982. The materials in the collection relate to a variety of Holocaust topics, but mainly music, poetry, art, and theater in the concentration camps during World War II. Kulisiewicz compiled the small archive of music, poetry, literature, photographs, and sound recordings during the years after his liberation from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at the end of World War II. Many of the reproductions in the collection are a result of Kulisiewicz borrowing materials from former fellow camp inmates and other camp survivors. He did this in order to build a research collection, which he would use to compile and publish his anthology of concentration camp music and poetry. Kulisiewicz was unsuccessful in publishing the anthology before his death but drafts for the work are found in this collection.
