Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.What does evil sound like? Jonathan Glazer’s devastating Auschwitz-set film The Zone of Interest gave us an idea with its oppressive audio collage of droning machinery, buzzing electrical fences and distant screams. But some survivors of the extermination camp would also be haunted by the sound of classical music, especially those coerced into playing in orchestras for SS officers.The presence of anything melodious in this man-made hell seems inconceivable. But, as we are reminded in a profoundly moving new documentary, music in Auschwitz was used by prisoners as an outlet for rebellion or mourning, as well as by the Nazis as a soundtrack to their systematic murder. Inmates were ordered to play outside the gas chambers, at the end of the infamous death marches and on the arrival of trains that brought Jewish, Polish and Romani people to the camp. At other times they were forced to perform for the pleasure of the SS.The Lost Music of Auschwitz is the culmination of almost a decade of research by British composer Leo Geyer. Poring over the camp’s archives, he found secret messages of resilience and sorrow hidden in the arrangements devised by inmates, as well as fragments of scores of “forbidden music” written and performed in furtive defiance.The discoveries are thoughtfully contextualised by Geyer, yet he posits that music can better articulate that which is “beyond words”. Accordingly, the hour-long film is largely built around stirring performances of pieces either conducted by Geyer or — in the case of an unfinished work by composer Mieczysław Krzynski — completed by him.Performed recently at Auschwitz, these renditions serve as both a confrontation with the horror of what happened and a powerful symbol of endurance: the lost musicians and composers are honoured in a place built to eradicate them. Among the moving tributes is a plaintive solo piece written by Geyer in homage to Romani violinist Jakub Segar (played on an instrument salvaged from the camp) and a Chopin elegy sung by Jewish soprano Caroline Kennedy, whose great-grandparents’ siblings were Auschwitz victims. The piece was originally chosen for performance and arranged by the camp’s Women’s Orchestra, whose story will be told later this month in a BBC documentary, The Last Musician of Auschwitz, about the cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch.While it would have been interesting to hear more from Geyer and his orchestra about the experience of putting together such a sensitive project, the filmmakers understandably prioritise the testimonies of inmates — shared in both new interviews and older recordings. The stories are heart-rending, the details stomach-turning, but the film ends on a tentatively hopeful note from survivor Susan Pollack. She reflects on how listening to music formed part of her “spiritual recovery”. It reminded her, she says, that “there is, perhaps, beauty in the world”.★★★★☆On Sky Arts and Now from January 20 at 9pm
