Ghetto Swingers
The Ghetto Swingers were a jazz band organised in Theresienstadt.
The original amateur Czech band was led by Eric Vogel and Pavel Lipensky, when the famous jazz pianist Martin Roman arrived in the camp he was asked to lead. The band and appeared in the Theresienstadt cabarets, known as the Carousel (Karussell), which performed over fifty times, most frequently during June and July 1944. The cabarets were organised by Kurt Gerron who could draw upon the best talent in the camp. Both Roman and Gerron had come to Theresienstadt via Westerbork and qualified for entry to Theresienstadt as "artists".
Commandant Rahm instructed Gerron to make a propaganda film for the Red Cross. Gerron's film shows footage of the Martin Roman's jazz ensemble, the 'Ghetto Swingers', playing on the wooden pavilion built for Karel Ančerl's string orchestra in the town's main square. After the camp closed the members of the jazz band were sent to Auschwitz. Roman and the guitarist Coco Schumann survived. Gerron and the clarinetist Fritz Weiss did not.
Coco Schumann's biography (1997) shows a photo of the Ghetto-Swingers with Martin Roman, Coco Schumann, Bedřich "Fricek" Weiss (clarinet and saxophone), Fritz Goldschmidt (guitar), Nettl (accordion), Jetti Kantor and Ratner (violin), Josef Taussig (trombone) and others; Kohn, Chokkes and Erich Vogel (trumpet), Donde (tenor saxophone), Pavel Libensky (double bass), Fredy Haber (tenor). Some of the players overlapped with the Jazz-Quintet-Weiss.
References
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto_Swingers
