Kamp! – Songs and Satire from Theresienstadt is a 2016 album recorded by Amelia DeMayo, Curt Buckler & Sergei Dreznin (piano) under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress.  It’s a collection of 25 more or less satirical songs written in the Theresienstadt camp/ghetto by the likes of Leo Straus and Ilse Weber.  They are presented here in English translation and in a breezy cabaret style which is very apt and which I liked very much.

There’s some really good stuff here like Straus’ “Welcome to Theresienstadt” from which the title of this post is taken.  There’s a lovely parody of the “Marseillaise” explaining how the Jews captured Maria Theresa’s impregnable fortress without firing a shot.  And there are Ilse Weber’s ineffably sad songs.  So there’s sadness, and some bitterness but mostly it’s very dark, very funny black humour.  Almost literally gallows humour.

It’s nicely recorded with an intimate, club kind of acoustic.  The documentation is exemplary.  Besides full texts there’s a really good, concise history of Theresienstadt and it’s rather peculiar role in the Final Solution.  There are even some very good drawings from the camp.  Well worth reading.

It’s available as a physical CD or digitally in MP3 or CD quality FLAC.

Catalogue information: Analekta AN28789