GUSEN CONVOLUTE

Songs From The Concentration Camp

About

Gusen is a village in Upper Austria, situated between Linz and Perg. During the Nazi era, over 70,000 people from at least 27 nations were imprisoned here in three camps (Gusen I, II, III). About half of them were worked to death. In particular, the decimation of the Polish intelligentsia was a Nazi goal. That is why an above-average number of Polish musicians and composers suffered martyrdom in Gusen. Over the years, they wrote songs, mostly in secret. Many of the originals are available in the Kulisiewicz Collection at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Peter Androsch and a creative team have developed artistic reflections on some of these pieces, which are collected here in the GUSEN CONVOLUTE.

Reflections

The GUSEN CONVOLUTE attempts to artistically reflect on some of the songs from the concentration camp as pars pro toto, to understand them, to grasp them, perhaps to answer them. It is not about preserving the songs, exhibiting them in an online museum. We want to re-member the songs. Bring them back inside us. This means dealing with them with as much depth of understanding as possible, and with our current thinking, feeling, acting, and creating.
Up to twenty reflections will be published by the end of 2026. 

Już przebrzmiał grom
Der Donner hat bereits gegrollt
The Thunder Has Already Rumbled

Od Dunaju sinych fal
Von den blauen Wellen der Donau
From The Danube's Blue Waves


Tak mi sie chce spac
Ich möchte so gerne schlafen
I Want To Sleep So Much


Kolęda kołysanka
Weihnachtswiegenlied
Christmas Carol


Leć, Orle biały
Flieg, weißer Adler
Fly, White Eagle


A gdybym poszedł
Und wenn ich ginge
And If I Went

Materials

Many compositions from the Gusen concentration camp are now available as manuscripts, typescripts or hybrid material. Hybrid in this context means that various methods such as typewriting, handwriting and/or pre-printed music paper were used. The source materials for each reflection are collected here as PDFs.

Lyrics: Konstanty Ćwierk (1895-1944) - The journalist and writer created a great work (poems, short stories, novellas, radio plays, screenplays), in Gusen he became one of the main organizers of cultural life in the camp.
Music: Gracjan Guziński (1907-1944) - The musician from Poznań wrote some of the most important songs to have been handed down from the Dachau and Mauthausen-Gusen camps.
PDF

Text: Władysław Kozaczkiewicz
Music: Lubomir Szopiński (1913-1961) - the musician, composer and conductor survived six years in German concentration camps. In Gusen he led the prisoners' choir, after the war he led the choir of Radio Wrocław.
PDF 

Lyrics & Music: Wacław Gaziński (1919-2013) - the writer, sculptor and composer survived over five years in German concentration camps. In 1949 he went to the United States, where he took an active part in Polish-American cultural life until the end.
PDF 

Lyrics & Music: Wacław Gaziński (1919-2013) - The writer, sculptor and composer survived over five years in German concentration camps. In 1949 he went to the USA, where he took an active part in Polish-American cultural life until the end.
PDF 

Text: Roman Grzyb (1916-1985?) - a lawyer, held prisoner in Auschwitz and Gusen. After 1945, he worked at the National Bank of Poland in Bielsko-Biała.
Music: Anonymous
PDF

Lyrics: Grzegorz Timofeyev (1908-1962) - was a Polish poet, writer and translator. After 1945, editor of “Lodz Literary” and director of the Osa Theater in Łódź.
Music: Wacław Gaziński (1919-2013) - The writer, sculptor and composer survived over five years in German concentration camps. In 1949 he went to the United States, where he took an active part in Polish-American cultural life until the end.
n KZ. 1949 ging er in die USA, wo er bis zuletzt am polnisch-amerikanischen kulturellen Leben gestaltend teilnahm.
PDF

Team

The people involved in GUSEN CONVOLUTE:
Peter Androsch - idea, concept, overall direction, music (peterandrosch.at)
David Baczyk - voice
Anja Burghardt - sign language poetry
Bibi Finster - video
Bogna Korabiewska – voice
Agata Moll - voice
Claus Prellinger - studio, sound, video, editing, design
Florian Sedmak - text research
Dorota Trepczyk - translation, consulting, voice
and others 

Supporters

Independent art & research is the guiding principle of GUSEN CONVOLUTE. This is possible thanks to the support of the following people and institutions. Thank you very much!

Alexander Kulisiewicz Collection, Bowie, Maryland, USA
Arbeiterkammer Oberösterreich, A
Maria Berger, Perg, A
Bewusstseinsregion Mauthausen-Gusen-St. Georgen, A
CCP Studio, Prellinger Claus, Linz, A
Erste Stiftung, Wien, A
Andrea und Christoph Freudenthaler, St. Georgen, A
Gedenkdienstkomitee Gusen, A
GWG, Linz, A
Haus der Erinnerung, St. Georgen, A
Rudolf A. Haunschmied, Traun, A
Thomas Kerbl, Eidenberg, A
Kriegergut - Garten- und Landschaftsdesign GmbH, Perg, A
Maria Kronsteiner, Washington, USA
Landeshauptstadt Linz, A
LAWOG, Linz, A
Markus Lindinger, Linz, A
Alexander Luger, Linz, A
Hans Mitterbauer, Mondsee, A
Heimatverein Katsdorf / Gemeinde Katsdorf, A
Helmut Mittendorfer, Steinhaus, A
Oö. Landesregierung, Linz, A
Stadtgemeinde Perg, A
Rosenbauer International AG, Linz, A
Martin Siegel, Linz, A
Josef Siligan, Linz, A
Dorota Trepczyk, Alkoven, A
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, Washington, D.C., USA
Andrea Wahl, St. Georgen, A
Erich Wahl, St. Georgen, A
Ute Wetscher, Linz, A
Martin Winkler, Linz, A 

Contact / Legal notice / Links

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gusen Convolute
Peter Androsch
Karlhofstraße 21
4040 Linz / Austria
arbeitsgemeinschaft@gusen-convolute.org

Other pages and articles on the topic

gusen-memorial.org
mauthausen-memorial.org
bewusstseinsregion.at
collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn546848
moked.it/blog/2020/05/20/un-nuovo-umanesimo/
gusen.org

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