​Welcome to the digital version of "Schulhoff", complete with digitized research boards and performance recording. This contemporary dance work seeks to revive and honor the music of Erwin Schulhoff, a Jewish composer and Holocaust victim. A radical and innovative artist of his time, Schulhoff was one of the first European musicians to incorporate jazz into classical music forms such as symphonies and concertos. The Nazis deemed jazz and all forms of modern art a threat to their ideology and sought to completely erase from history the work of Schulhoff and many other artistic trailblazers. This performance celebrates the survival and legacy of Schulhoff’s music while investigating the Nazis' ban on art forms that embraced freedom of expression and created pathways to share new ideas, voices, and perspectives.“Schulhoff” is made possible by the generous support of The Beker Foundation. This work was developed through the Boston Center for the Arts Dancemaker's Laboratory program and presented live in Spring of 2022 at New England Conservatory, the W-Gallery Wayland, and in CURE8 Cambridge at The Dance Complex. 
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About ZACHOR: 
“Schulhoff” is the newest work in Rachel Linsky’s ongoing project series, ZACHOR (remember), which seeks to preserve the memories of WWII Holocaust survivors and victims through dance. CLICK HERE to learn more about ZACHOR and see past works created in this series.

Digital Research Boards 

Nazi Book Burning

The Beginning of the Nazi’s Attempt to Rid German Culture of Non-Aryan Influence

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On May 10, 1933, as part of an effort to align German arts and culture with Nazi ideology, university students across Germany burned thousands of books they considered to be “un-German,” which began an era of censorship and cultural control. Students threw books confiscated from public libraries and university libraries into bonfires. The participants sought to purify German literature of Jewish, foreign, and other immoral influences. 
An estimated 40,000 people came to hear Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, deliver a fiery address: “No to decadence and moral corruption!” Upwards of 25,000 “un-German” books were burned in Berlin’s Opera Square. Among the authors whose books were burned was Hellen Keller, an American whose belief in social justice encouraged her to champion the disabled community, pacifism, and women's voting rights.

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Photos Courtesy of United States Holocaust Memorial Musuem
"To liquidate people, you start by depriving them of their memory. They destroy your books, your culture, your history. And someone else writes other books, gives them another culture, invents another story; after that, people slowly begin to forget what they are and what they were. And the world around you forgets even faster." 
- Milan Kundera

Entartete Kunst / Entartete Musik

Degenerate Art / Degenerate Music 

After WWI, Under the Weimar Republic, Germany was becoming a vibrant, innovative, and broad-minded scene for the arts. New ideas, perspectives, and influences were readily embraced, opening pathways to success for minority groups. The Nazis felt that this new wave in the arts posed a serious threat to their ideology. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they began to gradually exclude Jews and non-Aryans from cultural life. They had a narrow definition of acceptable German literature, and began crafting their attack on art and music as well. ​
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, organized the touring exhibitions “Entartete Kunst” (1937) and “Entartete Musik” (1938) to culminate the Nazi’s increasing efforts to restrict modern art and music. These exhibitions were designed to mock modernists whose work did not align with Nazis’ ideals and instill public fear towards the artists that were considered racially inferior according to Nazi policy, regardless of style. After these exhibitions, the displayed artists were barred from jobs and forbidden to create and perform.
The “Entartete Kunst” exhibition toured for two years across Germany and Austria. The exhibit attracted an estimated 3 million visitors. Children were not permitted to go inside the exhibit because the art was seen as harmful and corruptive. 
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​Confiscated artworks were crammed chaotically together in the exhibition space alongside derogatory graffiti comments. Among the 650 pieces on display were works by Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall, George Grosz, Mondrian, Kandinsky, and Paul Klee. After the exhibition, many were publicly destroyed. 

Photos Courtesy of Artland Magazine


​The Nazi propaganda poster for Entartete Musik attacks Ernst Krenek’s opera, Jonny spielt auf, which features a black jazz musician as the main character. Krenek’s new opera was a great success; touring theaters across Europe, but demonstrations staged by Nazis prevented the show’s opening in Vienna. The Nazis placed Ernst Krenek on the list of Degenerate musicians because of his choice to feature a black musician in his opera and created this  Entartete Musik poster in which Krenek’s character Jonny is depicted as a monkey, and bears a Jewish Star.



​Photo courtesy of ORT, Impact Through Education
Inside of the 1938 Entartete Musik Exhibition in Düsseldorf.
Photo courtesy of Deutsche Welle (DW)

Jazz & Swing 

How did Jazz, which originated in the African American communities
​of New Orleans, make its way to Europe? 
In the early 1920s, African American jazz artists could not break through the racial divide in the United States, so some took to Europe where they could perform with ever-growing popularity. Jazz was said to have “A musical dictatorship over the masses”. Of all the musical genres banned, The Nazis felt most threatened by jazz because of its African-American roots and the large number of Jewish jazz musicians practicing in Europe at the time. They believed jazz to be a conspiracy against German culture.
Valaida Snow
Valaida Snow, a famous jazz musician from Tennessee was known as “Little Louis” because her talent with a trumpet rivaled the legendary Louis Armstrong. She performed internationally and while performing in German-occupied Denmark in 1941, she was arrested and imprisoned. She was released 8 months later as part of a prisoner exchange; Snow never recovered emotionally. She continued to perform in the United States, but remained haunted by her experience and could never regain her former success. 
Freddy Johnson 
Freddy Johnson, an African American horn and piano player moved to France in 1930 to escape American racism and develop professional opportunities. He was on tour when the threat of the Nazis intensified. In December 1941, he was arrested in German-occupied Amsterdam and interned at the Tittmoning prisoner-of-war camp. In February 1944, Johnson was released from the camp in a prisoner exchange. 

Photos Courtesy of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Swingjugend / Swing Youth

Hitler Youth Vs. Swing Youth 


While the Nazis worked to indoctrinate children and teens with their ideology, an act of teenage rebellion emerged in Germany and Austria in 1939: Swingjugend. These informal groups of teenagers preferred the individuality and expressiveness of American jazz and swing to German nationalism, uniformity, and military regulation. In secret, the Swingjugend would gather to listen to banned jazz and swing records and practice swing dance. While they did not intend to be a political group, their refusal to conform angered the Nazis. When caught breaking the Nazi’s strict rules on music and dance, these teens faced a range of punishments including incarceration in concentration camps.



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Photos courtesy of The National WWII Museum, New Orleans

Erwin Schulhoff

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) was an exciting, unique, intensely curious, and multi-faceted creative figure whose work embraced a full range of modern influences. An artistic trailblazer of his time, Schulhoff was one of the first European composers to draw inspiration from jazz and saw the power that it held for societal change. The Nazis viewed Schulhoff’s work as a threat because of its modern influences, his Jewish identity, and his leftist politics. Schulhoff’s life and career ended tragically early upon his death in Wülzburg concentration camp in 1942, but the revival of his music celebrates the vitality of his work and his legacy today.
​Photo Courtesy of The OREL Foundation
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“Absolute art is revolution, it requires additional facets for development, leads to overthrow in order to open new paths... The idea of revolution in art has evolved for decades, under whatever sun the creators live, in that for them art is the commonality of man. This is particularly true in music, because this art form is the liveliest, and as a result reflects the revolution most strongly and deeply–the complete escape from imperialistic tonality and rhythm, the climb to an ecstatic change for the better.” 
- Erwin Schulhoff
“By keeping alive the music of the victims of totalitarianism, we deny those regimes any posthumous victory. The revival of this music can serve as a reminder to resist any contemporary or future impulse to define artistic standards on the basis of a racist or exclusionary ideology.”
- Fred Mazelis

"Schulhoff" 

Recorded performance, CURE8 Cambridge, The Dance Complex, April 30th, 2022
Choreographer: Rachel Linsky
Dancers: Gabriela Amy-Moreno, Imani Deal, Olivia Link, Frederick Moss
Music: “Hot Sonate” Composed by Erwin Schulhoff, played by Yukiko Takagi, piano and Philipp Stäudlin, alto saxophone
Projection Design: Olivia Moon Photography
This digital performance of "Schulhoff" is free! If you enjoyed learning and watching, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support the development of future projects under ZACHOR!