For the United Nations Holocaust Memorial Observance that took place in January 2025, the Lebensmelodien Project Ensemble played music composed and played during the Holocaust. Lebensmelodien was founded by Nur Ben Shalom, a third generation Holocaust survivor in response to a letter from his great aunt Salomea Ochs-Luft, a Jewish pianist, to her family shortly before she was deported in April 1943. In her letter, Salomea described the horror that she experienced, and asked her relatives to seek revenge after her death.
"The Melodies of Life [Lebensmelodien] project is actually my answer to the revenge question," says Nur Ben Shalom. "It's a transformation of the revenge, because when we play those melodies, we bring back the voices behind them."
In this interview, Nur Ben Shalom and Michael Raddatz, Director of Lebensmelodien speak about the role of music as an expression of identity, resistance and hope for Jewish victims and survivors of the Holocaust. By performing these rediscovered music pieces, Lebensmelodien brings the silenced voices and sounds back to life and into memory.