Lost Holocaust Scores Given New Life

German Director Hunts Hidden Jewish Compositions For "Reanimation" On Modern Stages

(CBS)  This story was written by CBS News producer Amy Guttman for CBSNews.com.

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Like a detective, Albrecht Dumling scours basements and dusty attics digging up the past. He travels the world hunting for music hidden during the Holocaust.

For nearly twenty years, this Berlin-based music director has spent his days finding works that died along with their creators, and bringing them back to life.

During World War II, Germany's Third Reich enforced a prohibition of all music from Jewish composers. As musicians were sent to concentration camps, their scores were buried for safekeeping.

Dumling searches for the lost compositions in hopes of reviving them to be played on modern stages, from Berlin to Seattle.

"We try to do some sort of justice to people who have suffered so much injustice under the Nazis," says Dumling.

He founded his organization, Musica Reanimata, after seeing an opera, "Kaiser of Atlantis," written and staged by Victor Ullman while he was a prisoner in the Terezin concentration camp, in what is now the Czech Republic.

Dumling decided he wanted to give other musicians a second chance. He admits that not all the works are masterpieces, but many carry compelling stories.

He shares the story of composer Siegfried Borris, a Jew given shelter by a prominent Nazi official's wife in Germany. Borris gave the couple's daughter music lessons throughout the war, concealing his Jewish identity.

Decades later, Dumling united Borris' daughter with the Nazi's daughter for a public performance of his work. It was a tearful meeting for them both.

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Listen To Amy Guttman's Report
Listen To Sigmund Schul's Symphony
Listen To Karl Rankl's "Fugue for Piano"

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Other rediscoveries include "The Fugue," by Sigmund Schul, a German composer who was sent to Terezin. He composed much of his work at the camp before dying of tuberculosis within its walls. Thanks to Dumling, an audience in Berlin heard his piano piece in 2005.

Not all of the composers died during the Holocaust. Some went on to find success in their own rights. Eric Zeisl fled Austria for Hollywood in 1938. He became known for writing the scores of some major movies, including, "The Postman Always Rings Twice".

Zeisl's daughter attended a Berlin concert where her father's piano pieces were played.

For Dumling, the reward is in resuscitating long-forgotten treasures, and turning what was lost, into something found - with a new fan base.

[logicanada]

I wonder who is searching the ruins of Palestine for lost music?

[adak4]

How wonderful that today''s musicians are searching for and performing the compositions that were lost to us. Every piece of music composed during WWII by those who lost their lives should be found and performed. They are the essence of the souls who perished.