The Ballad Of Mauthausen Mikis Theodorakis - the "most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust"

Soul-stirring album of Mikis Theodorakis dedicated to all those who experienced the cruelty of fascism and resisted. The 4 songs have lyrics of the poet Iakovos Kambanellis who passed two years of his life (1943-45) in the terrible Mauthausen camp in Austria and survived.

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Absolutely the best way the life in Concentration Camp lyrically described.

Even if you don't understand modern Greek....you can feel the anger ,the pain , the hope and the 'désespoir'.

Such a kind of powerful dramatic ballads with a distinctly feel for 'pathos' is seldom heard in modern music.

Maria Farandouri has the perfect 'timbre' to sing this kind of song.

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The Ballad of Mauthausen is an historical composition by Mikis Theodorakis (originally recorded 1966 by Maria Farandouri including, four celebrated poems by the Greek poet and playwright Iakovos Kambanellis, drawn from his “Tριλογία για Μαουτχάουζεν” (Mauthausen Trilogy), and other six poems by Nikos Gatsos, Gerasimos Stavrou, Dimitris Christoudoulou and Tasos Livaditis, already recorded 1964 in the so-called "Farandouri Cycle". The Ballad of Mauthausen includes, with no fear of exaggeration, not only some among the most famous and touching songs in the Greek language, but also among those dedicated to the extermination camps in any language. This album, indissolubly associated with Maria Farandouri's figure and voice, is a most important project of our website, now totally reshaped and restructured after years during which its songs have been scattered among various authors. One thing cannot change, however: the dedication I made to my grandfather, Bruno Venturi (1898-1978), who was a prisoner in and a survivor of Mauthausen, the “Customs House”. [RV]

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Άσμα Ασμάτων - Μαρία Φαραντούρη (English Subtitles)

Song of songs - Maria Farandouri - The Ballad Of Mauthausen - Mikis Theodorakis

Lolos P

Published on Jun 25, 2014

17-9-2014

Η Μαρία Φαραντούρη ερμηνεύει ζωντανά στο Ωδείο Ηρώδου Αττικού το "Άσμα Ασμάτων" στη συναυλία "Χθες άρχισα να τραγουδώ" για τα 50 χρόνια καριέρας...

Άσμα Ασμάτων

Μουσική: Μίκης Θεοδωράκης

Στίχοι: Ιάκωβος Καμπανέλλης

Τι ωραία που είν' η αγάπη μου

με το καθημερνό της φόρεμα

κι ένα χτενάκι στα μαλλιά.

Κανείς δεν ήξερε πως είναι τόσο ωραία.

Κοπέλες του Άουσβιτς,

του Νταχάου κοπέλες,

μην είδατε την αγάπη μου;

Την είδαμε σε μακρινό ταξίδι,

δεν είχε πιά το φόρεμά της

ούτε χτενάκι στα μαλλιά.

Τι ωραία που είν' η αγάπη μου,

η χαϊδεμένη από τη μάνα της

και τ' αδελφού της τα φιλιά.

Κανείς δεν ήξερε πως είναι τόσο ωραία.

Κοπέλες του Μαουτχάουζεν,

κοπέλες του Μπέλσεν,

μην είδατε την αγάπη μου;

Την είδαμε στην παγερή πλατεία

μ' ένα αριθμό στο άσπρο της το χέρι,

με κίτρινο άστρο στην καρδιά.

Τι ωραία που είν' η αγάπη μου,

η χαϊδεμένη από τη μάνα της

και τ' αδελφού της τα φιλιά.

Κανείς δεν ήξερε πως είναι τόσο ωραία.

@ I own nothing... music & dvd belongs to the company...

duration 07:23 minutes

( please using the right click of your mouse, and Open Link in Next Private Window, )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNgVdj4M4KM

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Joan Baez/The Ballad of Mauthausen/Mikis Theodorakis

Christos Zo

Published on Oct 1, 2015

The Ballad of Mauthausen

Lytics Iakovos Kambanellis

Music Mikis Theodorakis

duration 04:02 minutes

( please using the right click of your mouse, and Open Link in Next Private Window, )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeSVp65fI1M

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Song of songs -The Ballad Of Mauthausen - Mikis Theodorakis

George Vidakis

Published on Aug 27, 2014

* At that time, every Sunday is standing for hours worked and looked at the women and Kane comes out t 'tents and look at us. The distance between us was great. It is a question whether we could reach an understanding even though we shouted. This of course nobody took heart to try. Neither needed. This silent allilokoitagma passing two wire fences did not need a word. It was the hour of love to camp.

James Kambanellis

The Ballad Of Mauthausen 1995

Poetry : Iacovos Kambanellis

Music : Mikis Theodorakis

Singer : Peter Goedhart (baritone) Wim Spruiit (guitar)

How lovely is my love

in her everyday dress

with a little comb in her hair.

No-one knew how lovely she was.

Girls of Auschwitz,

girls of Dachau,

did you see my love?

We saw her on a long journey;

she wasn’t wearing her every day dress

or the little comb in her hair.

How lovely is my love

caressed by her mother,

and her brother’s kisses.

Nobody knew how lovely she was.

Girls of Mauthausen

girls of Belsen

did you see my love?

We saw her in the frozen square

with a number on her white hand

with a yellow star on her heart.

How lovely is my love

caressed by her mother,

and her brother’s kisses.

Nobody knew how lovely she was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWEBQNWtVU4&list=PLLPk4_kC2U8wIe9kiUtUAX7pITVjffgoo

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Version in an imperfect semi-phonetic transcription of the original Greek text

Iakovos Kambanellis (1921-2011)

ASMA ASMATON

Ti ōréa pou īne ī aγápī mou

me to kaθīmerinó tīs phórema

ki éna htenáki sta maλiá.

Kanīs δen īxere pōs īne tóso ōréa.

Kopéles tou Áousvits,

tou Daháou kopéles,

mīn īδate tīn aγápī mou ?

Tīn īδame se makrinó taxíδi,

δen īhe piá to phóremá tīs

oúte htenáki sta maλiá.

Ti ōréa pou īne ī aγápī mou

ī haiδeménī apó tī mána tīs

ke t’aδelphoú tīs ta phiλiá.

Kanīs δen īxere pōs īne tóso ōréa.

Kopéles tou Maoutháouzen,

kopéles tou Bélsen,

mīn īδate tīn aγápī mou ?

Tīn īδame stīn pajerī platīa

m’énan ariθmó sto áspro tīs héri,

me kítrino ástro stīn karδiá.

Ti ōréa pou īne ī aγápī mou

ī haiδeménī apó tī mána tīs

ke t’aδelphoú tīs ta phiλiá.

Kanīs δen īxere pōs īne tóso ōréa.

Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2006/1/22 - 00:35

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Andonis - The Ballad Of Mauthausen - Mikis Theodorakis

George Vidakis

Published on Aug 27, 2014

"If there is a god he will have to beg my forgiveness"

(carved on the walls of Auschwitz)

The Ballad Of Mauthausen 1995

Poetry : Iacovos Kambanellis

Music : Mikis Theodorakis

Singer : Peter Goedhart (baritone) Wim Spruiit (guitar)

The poet Iacovos Kambanellis was a prisoner in Mauthausen during World War II. At the beginning of the sixties, he wrote his memories of this time under the title of "Mauthausen". In 1965, he also wrote four poems on the subject and he gave Mikis the opportunity to set them to music.

There on the wide staircase

the staircase of tears

in Willegraben the deep

stone quarry of lamentations

Jews and partisans walk

Jews and partisans fall down

a rock they carry on their back

a rock a cross of death

There Antonis to the voice

the voice, voice he listens

oh camarand, oh camarand

help me to climb the stairs

But there on the wide staircase

that staircase of tears

such a help is an insult

such compassion can be a curse

The Jew falls on the step

and the staircase bleeds crimson

and you young lad come over here

a double rock you’ll carry

I’ll take a double, a triple I’ll take

me, they cal me Antoni

so come and meet me if you are a man

at the threshing circle, the one paved with marble*

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TRANSLATION NOTE

*The marble threshing circle that is paved with marble, το μαρμαρενιο αλωνι: a connection to the heroic epic of Digenis Acritas of the Byzantine Middle ages, where Akritas showing a manly contempt for death, challenges Death himself to a duel on a marble paved threshing circle.

(Kate)

Riccardo Venturi - 2006/1/21 - 21:26

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[ IMAGE ] Spyros Vassiliou - digenis-and-charon-digenis-kai-harontas-1965

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[ IMAGE ] Ο νιός κι ο Χάρος. Βυζαντινό κεραμικό από την Κόρινθο, 11-12ος αιώνας.

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[ IMAGE ] Ο νεαρός ήρωας φορά φολιδωτό θώρακα, και μανικόψελλα στους καρπούς.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptrZ2rs5jS4&list=PLLPk4_kC2U8wIe9kiUtUAX7pITVjffgoo&index=2

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Version in an imperfect semi-phonetic transcription of the original Greek text

Iakovos Kambanellis (1921-2011)

ANDŌNĪS

Ekī stī skála tīn platīa

stī skála tōn δakrýōn

sto Vilegráben to vaθý

to latomīo tōn θrīnōn

Evréi ki andártes perpatoún

Evréi ki andártes péphtoun

Vráho stīn plátī kouvaloún

vráho stavró θanátou

Ekī o Andōnīs stī phōnī

phōnī, phōnī akoúī

ō kamarád, ō kamarád

vóīθa n’anévō tī skála

Ma kī stī skála tīn platīa

ke tōn δakrýōn tī skála

tétia voīθīa īne vrisiá

tétia splahniá īne katára

O Evréos péphtī sto skalí

ke kokkinízī ī skála

ke sy levéndī mou éla eδō

vráho δíplo kouvála

Pérnō δíplo, pérnō tripló

ména me len Andōnī

ki an īse ándras éla eδō

sto marmarénio alōni.

Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2006/1/22 - 12:00

The fugitive - The Ballad Of Mauthausen Mikis Theodorakis

George Vidakis

Published on Aug 27, 2014

The Ballad Of Mauthausen 1995

Poetry : Iacovos Kambanellis

Music : Mikis Theodorakis

Singer : Peter Goedhart (baritone) Wim Spruiit (guitar)

Yannos Ber who comes from the North

Cannot stand the barbed wire.

He takes heart he takes wing,

He runs through the villages of the valley.

Good lady, give me a piece of bread.

Give me some clothes to change.

l have to go on a long journey.

And over lakes to fly.

Wherever he goes, wherever he stops

Terror and fear beat their wings,

And a terrible voice is heard.

"Hide from the fugitive."

Christians, I am no murderer.

No wild animal to eat you

I have escaped from prison

To go back to my home.

Ah! What solitude of death

In this country of Bertolt Brecht!

Yannos is handed over to the SS

They take him now for execution.

The poet Iacovos Kambanellis was a prisoner in Mauthausen during World War II. At the beginning of the sixties, he wrote his memories of this time under the title of "Mauthausen". In 1965, he also wrote four poems on the subject and he gave Mikis the opportunity to set them to music.

duration 03:43 minutes

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjzbIlRKySQ&list=PLLPk4_kC2U8wIe9kiUtUAX7pITVjffgoo&index=3

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Language: English

English version

THE FUGITIVE

Janos Ber from the North

can’t stand the barbed wire.

He takes heart, takes wing

runs through the villages of the valley.

Ma’am, give me a piece of bread

and clothes to change into –

I have a long way to go

and lakes to fly across.

Wherever he goes or stops

fear and terror strike

and a cry, a terrible cry:

Hide from the fugitive!

Christians, I’m no murderer,

no beast come to eat you.

I left the prison

to go back to my home.

Ah, what deathly loneliness

in this land of Bertolt Brecht!

They hand Janos over to the S.S.

They’re taking him, now, to be killed.

2006/5/3 - 00:10

==

Language: English

English version

available at this page http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/soc/mauthausen.html

THE FUGITIVE

Yannos Ber who comes from the North

Cannot stand the barbed wire.

He takes heart he takes wing,

He runs through the villages of the valley.

Good lady, give me a piece of bread.

Give me some clothes to change.

l have to go on a long journey.

And over lakes to fly.

Wherever he goes, wherever he stops

Terror and fear beat their wings,

And a terrible voice is heard.

"Hide from the fugitive."

Christians, I am no murderer.

No wild animal to eat you

I have escaped from prison

To go back to my home.

Ah! What solitude of death

In this country of Bertolt Brecht!

Yannos is handed over to the SS

They take him now for execution.

Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2006/1/21 - 23:55

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Version in an imperfect semi-phonetic transcription of the original Greek text

Iakovos Kambanellis (1921-2011)

O ΔRAPETĪS

O Jiánnos Ber ap’to voriá to sýrma δen andéhī

Kánī karδiá, kánī phterá

mes sta hōriá tou kámbou tréhī

Δōs’ mou kyrá líγo psōmí ke roúha jia n’allázō

Δrómo na kánō éhō polý

pánō apó límnes na petáxō

Ópou staθī ki ópou vreθī trómos ke phóvos péphtī

ke mia phōnī, phriktī phōnī

kryphtīye, kryphtīte ap’to δrapétī

Phoniás δen īme, hristianī, θerió jia na sás pháō

Éphyγa apó tī phylakī

sto spíti, sto spíti mou na páō

Ah, ti θanásimī erīmiá stou Bértold Breht tī hōra

Δínoun to Jiánno stous Es-Es

Jia krémasma ton páne tōra.

Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2006/1/22 - 20:24

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When war is over - The Ballad Of Mauthausen Mikis Theodorakis

George Vidakis

Published on Aug 27, 2014

The Ballad Of Mauthausen 1995

The poet Iacovos Kambanellis was a prisoner in Mauthausen during World War II. At the beginning of the sixties, he wrote his memories of this time under the title of "Mauthausen". In 1965, he also wrote four poems on the subject and he gave Mikis the opportunity to set them to music

Poetry : Iacovos Kambanellis

Music : Mikis Theodorakis

Singer : Peter Goedhart (baritone) Wim Spruiit (guitar)

Girl with the weeping eyes,

Girl with the frozen hands.

Forget me not when the war is over.

Joy of the world. come to the gate

So that we could embrace in the street.

So that we could kiss in the square.

So that we could make love in the quarry.

In the gas chambers,

On the staircase, in the observation post.

Love in the middle of noon

In all the corners of death

Till its shadow will be no more.

Girl with the weeping eyes,

Girl with the frozen hands.

Forget me not when the war is over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mpjnvcFLTA&index=4&list=PLLPk4_kC2U8wIe9kiUtUAX7pITVjffgoo

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Version in an imperfect semi-phonetic transcription of the original Greek text

Iakovos Kambanellis (1921-2011)

OTAN TELIOSI O POLEMOS

Korítsi me ta phovisména mátia

korítsi me ta pagoména mátia

áma teliosi o pólemos mi me xehásis

Hára tou kósmou éla stin pýli

n’angaliastoúme mes sto drómo

na phili?oúme stin platia

Korítsi me ta phovisména mátia

korítsi me ta pagoména héria

áma teliosi o pólemos mi me xehásis

Sto latomio n’agapi?oúme

stis kámares ton aeríon

sti skála, sta polyvolia

Korítsi me ta phovisména mátia

korítsi me ta pagoména héria

áma teliosi o pólemos mi me xehásis

Érota mes sto mesiméri

s’óla ta méri tou ?anátou

ospou n’aphanisti i skiá tou…

Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2006/1/23 - 10:13

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

( please using the right click of your mouse, and Open Link in Next Private Window, )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauthausen_Trilogy

In World War II, Iakovos Kambanellis, a Greek author and poet, was imprisoned by the Nazis at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria where he witnessed the Nazi atrocities. Over 100,000 victims died at the camp. Kambanellis survived the incarceration at the Nazi concentration camp and, after the liberation by the allies, started writing a book based on the events and atrocities he witnessed there.^[5]

With the passing years, Kambanellis's work remained in manuscript form at his home. Subsequent world events, such as the assassination of US President Kennedy, caused Kambanellis to re-examine and update his manuscript. He then wrote two new chapters which were eventually published in the Sunday editions of the Greek newspaper Eleftheria and caused a sensation. In December 1965, Kambanellis published his book Mauthausen with the Themelio publishers in Athens.^[5]

While the book was being prepared for publication by Themelio, Kambanellis wrote four poems based on four chapters in his book. The poems recounted the love affair between two young prisoners at the camp. The owner of Themelio publications, Mimis Despotides, suggested to Kambanellis that the four poems should also be released as songs, to coincide with the publication of the book, and suggested Mikis Theodorakis as the composer.^[8]

Kambanellis agreed and gave the poems to his friend Mikis Theodorakis who was very receptive to the idea of composing the music for them, since he was also imprisoned by the Nazis and Italian fascists in Greece during the war, and created the "Mauthausen Trilogy" which was quite unlike any of his previous works.^[2][5]The premiere of the works in Greece was at a theatre in Hippocrates street in Athens in December 1965 and the reception by the audience was enthusiastic.^[8][9]

The ballad is considered as possibly the greatest work of Theodorakis,^[17] while the "Song of Songs" has been described as "one of the finest songs Theodorakis has ever written".^[18] The music critic of the Baltimore Sun writes: "Theodorakis had the genius to set this poem with melodic elements from the hymn for Palm Sundayof the Orthodox Church, creating an exquisite, haunting and passionate melody that moves Kambanellis' affecting words to an even higher level."^[17]

Jerry Silverman in his book The Undying Flame: Ballads and Songs of the Holocaust writes that "we can be [similarly] enthralled by the passionate lyrics and haunting melody of "Asma Asmaton"" and "[Kambanellis] also wote a cycle of four poems based on episodes in his book, which were lovingly set to music by Mikis Theodorakis".^[19] Silverman also calls "Asma Asmaton" "extraordinarily moving".^[20]

Sophia Richman in her book Mended by the Muse: Creative Transformations of Trauma writes: "The song cycle is a requiem for Holocaust victims and raised the consciousness of all Greeks. Its sublime melodic lines, extended harmonies and rhythms, forced listeners to ask, "What happened to our Jews?"".^[1] Richman also mentions that the composer "created songs that have entered the pantheon of acclaimed song cycles".^[1]

Yaʾir Oron in the book The Pain Of Knowledge: Holocaust And Genocide Issues In Education writes that Kambanellis's poem "Song of Songs" "touches on certain aspects of the attitude of the world to the victims of the Holocaust in a unique way". Oron further comments that "Through its delicate poetical phrasing and its allusions to the biblical "Song of Songs" (Song of Solomon), the reader's attention is drawn to seemingly trivial details rather than to abstract generalizations. In this way, the poem evokes a personal identification with a specific figure (a young Jewish girl in this case)." Oron concludes that these attributes of the poem will make the pupil interested in the poem itself as well as the greater historical context surrounding the events depicted in the lyrics.^[14]

Kambanellis's poem "Song of Songs" has been included in a 7th Grade reader which is approved for the new middle schools' literature curriculum in Israel.^[14]

The work has been described as a "classical piece",^[21] and as "one that contrasts the Nazi horror with the only possible joy, the joy of resistance".^[22]

During the premiere of his ballad in London in 1967, Mikis Theodorakis was in Greece imprisoned by the recently installed Greek military junta and his music was banned in the country.^[17]

On 6 May 1994 at a concert in Carnegie Hall, filled to capacity, the audience joined Farandouri in singing the ballad.^[13] There are editions of these songs in Hebrewand several other languages.^[11] Already in 1967, on Theodorakis' request, Liesbeth List sung the Mauthausen cycle in Dutch in Liesbeth List zingt Theodorakis (nl), which became a platinum disc.^[23]

In May 1988, the world premiere of the "Mauthausen Trilogy", described as a "landmark concert",^[24] took place with Mikis Theodorakis conducting at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. The concert was attended by Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky along with tens of thousands of people from across Europe.^[24]Iakovos Kambanellis was also present. The ballad was sung by Maria Farandouri in Greek, Elinoar Moav Veniadi in Hebrew, Nadia Weinberg in English, and by East-German singer Gisela May in German.^[25][24]

In May 1995, a repeat concert at Mauthausen camp took place to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the camp conducted again by Theodorakis, which was also attended by chancellor Vranitzky and Simon Wiesenthal, who held a speech during the event. Maria Farandouri was the performer of the songs at that concert as well.^[21][26]

On 10 May 2015, the ballad of Theodorakis was played in a ceremony at the Greek memorial of Mauthausen honouring the memory of the 3,700 Greek victims of the Holocaust with Zoe Konstantopoulou attending as speaker of the Hellenic Parliament on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. Delegations from other European states and thousands of Europeans also attended ceremonies at the memorials of their individual countries.^[27]

In October 2015 the municipality of Larissa in Greece included the performance of Theodorakis's ballad as part of a five-day celebration commemorating the liberation of the city from the Nazi occupation.^[28]

The song "Andonis" from the ballad has been used by the Kurds as musical background in a video showing Kurdish women fighting at Kobanî during the Syrian Civil War.^[29][30] The song was also sung by the residents of Kabul in 2001 as they greeted troops of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan entering the city and expelling the Taliban.^[29] The aria of "Andonis" was the music theme of Costa-Gavras's 1969 film Z, whose soundtrack won a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music in 1970.^[5][29]

"Andonis" was also chosen as the background music for a pre-election advertising spot of Syriza, a fact criticised by the newspapers because the name "Andonis" was that of the New Democracy leader at the time, Antonis Samaras, and the lyrics depict Andonis as a heroic figure who challenges anyone to fight with him on the marble threshing-floor. The title of one newspaper article translates as: "[Elena] Akrita: Did anyone at Syriza pay attention to the lyrics of the piece they chose for their [advertising] spot?" and the other: "Unfortunate selection of music in Syriza's [advertising] spot".^[31][32]

A theatrical play based on the Trilogy, premiered in Athens on 6 December 2012 featuring the music of Mikis Theodorakis and Gustav Mahler. The work appeared at the Badminton Theater in Athens under the title Mauthausen. Theodorakis had granted permission for the use of his work during the play.^[33]

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'I Left for Freedom, She Left to Exist'

Greek writer Iakovos Kambanellis has been waiting for decades to bring his book 'Mauthausen' to an Israeli audience.

Avirama Golan Mar 21, 2006 12:00 AM

( please using the right click of your mouse, and Open Link in Next Private Window, )

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/1.4897215

ATHENS - The interpreter did not come and Iakovos Kambanellis, a thin and smiley 83-year-old man, promised to speak Greek slowly with as much French and English as he could. In his soft voice, he managed somehow to express his precise intention and his great excitement in three languages, and he also overpowered the noise in the dining room of the Athens hotel coming from a group of young people from Cyprus.

Kambanellis was captivated by the heavy inflection rolling off their tongues. Their intent concentration with their eyes wide open in wonder did not cease to move him. "It's a constant effort to analyze the world," he says. This is a simple key for understanding his poetic, concise and wondrous writing.

"How is the Hebrew translation?" he asks. "Is it good?" Even though he had already heard several times that it is, he insists on explaining: "I write in simple language. Sometimes it seems too simple. But within the words layers are built of - how should I put it - poetry. Not lofty, gentle, like steps. Slowly."

There is no better description than that of Kambanellis' unique style. "Mauthausen" is the only novel written by the man who is today considered the greatest modern Greek playwright. He is recognized by every Greek thanks to his poetry, which has been set to music and transformed into folk music classics. The novel is composed entirely of dramatic pictures, concisely worded, stern-faced and rhythmic.

"It was April." That is how the book opens. And then goes on to relate that "It was 1945. We were starting to realize that the war was on the verge of ending." It is easy to imagine an actor reading the text.

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As one frantically reads further, in the background one can hear strains from the work that stemmed from this book - "Mauthausen Cantata," a series of songs composed by Mikis Theodorakis. The most well-known song of all, performed by Maria Farantouri (in Hebrew there are two versions, by Lior Yeini and Elinoar Moav Veniadis, who also translated the songs and sang them at a special concert with Theodorakis and Farantouri), is "Asma Asamton" (Song of Songs), which opens with the words "My love, how beautiful she is in her everyday dress."

"Of course I knew the original text," Kambanellis responds in wonder. And indeed, the song maintains the poetic structure of the Song of Songs, until the chilling line, coming as if in response to "have you seen him whom my soul loves," echoes with the question - "Young girls of Mauthausen, Young girls of Belsen, Have you seen my love?" and the answer "We saw her in the frozen square, A number in her white hand And a yellow star on her heart."

Legend of sorts

How did the Greek boy, a native of the isle of Naxos in the Aegean Sea, end up in Mauthausen? How did his personal story, a story of survival and growing up between the fences of death and the love for a Jewish girl, become a legend of sorts borne by all his countrymen that sprouted wings in many other countries, but in the one place where he sought to become known more than anywhere else - he is hardly known?

"I wasn't a Communist at all," he says in response to the first question, which was based on a prevailing, misguided assumption that every non-Jewish Greek who arrived in the camps was an underground fighter.

Kambanellis, a friend of Jorgos Papandreu, the leader of the Socialist Pasok party and of other leading figures of the Greek Left, was not imprisoned for his political views or activities.

"No, no. I always was - how shall I say - a man of freedom, left of Pasok but in those days I was mostly a hooligan."

The 20-year-old hooligan, from a poor family with many children that moved to a poor Athens suburb, was attending night classes at a technical school in the spring of 1943. He wasn't interested in the studies, life in a poor neighborhood under the German occupation was choking him, and he set off on hopeless adventure far from home, to Austria. From there he hoped to reach Switzerland with a friend and obtain a passport that would transform him into a free man.

"We were kids," he says, "with no responsibilities."

The two smuggled cigarettes in order to buy passports that someone had promised them, and were caught at an S.S. roadblock.

"I had a pad of millimeter-thick paper that I used to calculate how many bread coupons we had and how much money remained. They were sure I was a spy making confidential notes." And maybe it was just easy for them to capture two young and healthy Greeks for work in a camp.

"I was a prisoner in the S.S. concentration camp in Mauthausen from the summer of 1943 until the end of the war," Kambanellis wrote in 1963, in the preface to his book. "Since then, 20 years have passed and only now do I feel able to touch this part of my life and the lives of so many others, and put it down in writing. Today, when I see the 'meeting' between the 'past' and the 'present,' things that I didn't understand become clear to me. Perhaps I understand them now."

He wrote the notes himself, just as many other camp survivors did, some time after his return home. "When I came home, this sort of phenomenon started - only a few returned, those who stayed in Greece wanted to hear about what happened, and I started telling, and telling and telling. For months, I wanted to tell the story; to tell the story to others, but also to myself. I wanted to hear my voice telling the story. I don't know what was more powerful - the desire of others to hear or my need to tell."

God forgot about man

The young Kambanellis would sit, surrounded by family, friends or strangers and tell the story. From time to time, he would enrich his story with more details. Occasionally, he would remember more things. His memory opened up and flowed, and with it came his ability to tell a story. Without realizing it, Kambanellis underwent the process that formed the first written stories in ancient Greek literature: "the storyteller, the wandering minstrel," refined his story over time until it became a pure song, well anchored in the vast storytelling tradition.

But Kambanellis, from the new Greece, still did not know that he had been reborn as a storyteller.

"They told me: you have to write, and I after all didn't even know how to write. I did not have any kind of formal education," he says.

In the end, just as in the first book of stories he had told by heart, he sat down in 1945 and wrote down everything he remembered.

"Just in order not to forget. Not to forget. I filled up so many pages, I had two kilograms of paper and I had no ambition to publish a book. Just that everything should be written down. That the memories would not be lost."

His restless ability to express himself came out in other areas. Kambanellis wrote "Stella," a play that became a classic and was even the basis for an international hit film. Another play, "The Seventh Day of Creation," which was performed on the new stage of the National Theater, merited praise. Kambanellis, who stresses that he is not a religious man, uses many Jewish and Christian shapes and symbols to pour deep meanings into his philosophical and social statements in the theater. The seventh day in the play is the day when God, according to Kambanellis, forgot about man, and he was left alone in the world.

In love with freedom

Kambanellis was already a successful and respected playwright at age 42 when he remembered the notes.

"Kennedy was assassinated and Khrushchev fell," he says, "and the Cold War was renewed. Suddenly people remembered the war again." In a newspaper column he wrote every Sunday, he decided to tell about what happened in Mauthausen. Thousands of new subscribers signed up for the paper and in 1964, the book "Mauthausen" was published. It has continued to sell to this day, expect for the years when the colonels' regime restricted the famous playwright's movements and distribution of the book was banned (during this period, he wrote light-hearted plays that fooled the censors, but not the audience's understanding).

And during this entire period, the only thing the author wanted was for "Mauthausen" to be published in Hebrew.

"I had some very deep reasons for this. As a person, not as a writer," he tries to explain his deep ties to Jews since the camp. There was his love for Yanina, the young woman whose lost Italian husband came for her at the end of the war. Kambanellis had to part with her, with much pain, on Italian territory.

But she is not the only explanation he sees for this connection. He never saw Yanina again, and today he sees their love differently.

"We were in love with freedom, liberation, and the women were part of this love. I left for my own freedom. She left for her existential need, for security, for home. There was a huge gap between us," he says.

What then tied him to the Jews? He remained with the Jewish group even after all his Greek friends left. He responds with some confusion when he hears that the book, despite its laconic style, creates the impression of a moral and responsible young man who refuses to neglect the group of Jews, even at the expense of his comfort.

"I don't want to make myself into a hero. What could I do? I saw the eyes of the sick, of the weak, of the abandoned; could I have said okay, fine, I'm leaving now? I was their friend," he recalls. Yes, he admits he was deeply envious of them "because we all went back to an old world and we were scared of it. We couldn't, after those three years, go back to the world of the past, of before the war. And they went to a new, virgin, country and started a new world in Palestine."

He has been close to Jews ever since his childhood in a poor neighborhood, where he was friends with the Jewish children. Even when he was angry at Israel, at the beginning of the intifada, and spoke out vehemently against it, he did not stop feeling this closeness. Now he is wondering again about those statements.

"It's complex, what's going on in your country. In this scenario of David and Goliath, David is not always the one who seems to be David. And he's not always right," he says.

After a long delay, he says, the book has finally been published in Hebrew, and he so much hopes that in Israel they will like it. How does he explain that even though "Mauthausen" is a tragic story filled with nightmares, blood and death and abysses of despair, between the lines and the soft and beautiful rhythm in which it is told, there rises from it an optimism filled with love for his fellow man and with hope?

"I have no explanation," he smiles. "I only know that it is full of life. That's it; just as I am. Perhaps" - Kambanellis hesitates. "There was once someone who explained it. A Frenchman, the director of the French institute in Greece. He said that only someone from the islands could see through the gloom and glimpse the sun's rays. Perhaps. Because there really is something like that in the Aegean Sea."

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Survivors in the "Russian Camp"

Mauthausen was classified as a so-called "category three camp". This was the fiercest category, and for the prisoners it meant "Rûckkehr unerwünscht" (return not desired) and "Vernichtung durch arbeit" (extermination by work).

In summer, wake up was at 4.45 a.m (5.15 in winter), and the working day ended at 7 p.m. This included two roll calls and the distribution of food rations. All the activity revolved around the Wiener Graben and the underground tunneling at the sub-camps of Gusen (I, II and III), Melk and Ebensee. In the Wiener Graben the prisoners were divided into two groups; one that hacked into the granite and the other that carried the slabs up the 186 steep steps to the top of the quarry.

Survivors in the "Russian Camp".

An eyewitness report from Olga Wormser can perhaps give a hint of the life in the quarries: " Eighty-seven Dutch Jews were sent to the quarries separated from all the other prisoners. There they encountered the effeminate SS men known as "Hans" and "The blond Damsel". These two with pick handles in hand flailed into this pathetic group who were digging in the mountainside. By eleven-thirty, 47 of the 87 lay dead on the ground. They were butchered, one after another, before the eyes of fellow prisoners helpless to do anything. That afternoon, four more were killed. They were taken to the cliff top and told to fight. When two dropped to the rocks below, the victors would go free. Two dropped, but the victors were immediately pushed to join them."

Another killing method, favored by the SS during the winter season, was to gather a group of prisoners in the garage yard and order them to undress. A guard then sprayed water over the group which was left to freeze to death. This was quite effective in a region where the winter temperature usually was around minus 10 degrees Celsius.

If possible, the Gusen complex was considered as even a worse fate than Mauthausen. Here the death toll was so high that each barrack was divided in an "A" and "B" part ("Stube A, Stube B"). The sick, wounded or those too weak to work were hurled in the Stube B. Here, covered in their own excrement and those of others, they lay on the ground or upon others, wherever they were flung, and left to die. No food or water reached the Stube B.

Franz Ziereis

On May 23,1945 SS Standartenfuehrer Ziereis, commander of the concentration camp Mauthausen, while trying to escape, was seriously wounded by shots from pursuing American soldiers. On May 24th, the dying, Ziereis was interrogated by the authorities. We have before us the record of the interrogation of Ziereis which is certified by the burgomaster Feichtinger and Edelbauer, commanding officer of the rural police in St. Valentin. In the fact of his imminent death Ziereis made a confession, the confession of the hangman...

"My name is Franz Ziereis, born 1903 in Munich, where my mother and brothers and sisters are still living. I, myself, am not a wicked man and I have risen through work. I was a merchant by profession and, during the period of unemployment, I worked as a carpenter. In 1924 I joined the eleventh Bavarian Infantry Regiment. Later I was transferred to the training department and then to Mauthausen as commanding officer. The following posts and camps were under my command: Mauthausen, Gusen, Linz,

Ebensee, Passau, Ternberg, Gross-Raming, Melk, Eisenerz, Beppern, Klagenfurt, Laibach, Loibl, Loiblpass, Heinkel, W. Wiener-Neustadt, Mittelber and Floridsdorf with approximately 81.000 inmates. The garrison of the camp Mauthausen numbered 5.000 SS men. The highest number of inmates in Mauthausen was 19.800. On the order of SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Krebsbach a gas chamber was built in the form of a bathroom. The inmates were gassed in this gas chamber. All executions were carried out on the order of the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police Himmler, the SS Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner, or the SS Gruppenfuehrer Mueller. Finally 800 inmates were gassed in Gusen I Block 31. I do not know the whereabouts of SS Oberscharfuehrer Jenschk; he murdered 700 inmates in Gusen.

Jenschk carried out the murders in the following manner: At an outside temperature of minus 12 degrees (centigrades) he made the inmates bath in water and then stand in the open stark naked until they died. Dr. Kiesewetter killed the inmates through benzine injections. SS Untersturmfuehrer Dr. Richter, while operating, on inmates regardless whether they were ill or healthy extirpated a piece of the brain and thus caused their death. This happened to about 1000 inmates. SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl sent weak and sick inmates into the woods and let them starve to death. The sick tried to stay alive by eating grass and bark

but all died miserably of hunger. Pohl furthermore halved the food rations of the inmates and had all sick and weak inmates murdered through gas. This gas chamber was situated in Hartheim, ten kilometers distant from Linz. About 1.500.000 inmates were gassed in it. In Mauthausen all gassed inmates were reported as having died of natural causes.

(Note: The estimated number of inmates gassed in Hartheim is 30,000.)

Pohl sent me 6.000 women and children who, without any food and during very cold weather had been in transit in open freight cars for about ten days. I was ordered to send the children away. I believe that they all died. Thereupon I became very nervous. On orders from Berlin 2500 inmates from a transport from Auschwitz were bathed in hot water and during very cold

weather had to stand in the open until they perished. Gauleiter Eigruber did not send any food, but ordered that 50% of the food for the inmates was to be handed out to the civilian population. Gluecks ordered that the inmates, occupied in the crematory, were to be relieved at least every three weeks and to be killed through shots in the neck, because they know too much. Furthermore it was ordered that all physicians and the nursing personnel was to be sent to an alleged labour camp in order to be killed.

The camp Lambrecht was liquidated. Pohl and several women gave large banquets and drinking parties in a villa. The inmates who worked in the villa were killed because they had seen too much, accused of theft and transported to Mauthausen with the order "destroy".

Himmler gave the order to load a 45 kilo stone on an inmate's back and make him run around with it until he fell dead. Himmler ordered us to establish a penal labor company according to this system. The inmates had to haul stones until they collapsed, then they were shot and their record was annotated "Trying to escape". Others were driven into a fence made of charged high-tension wire. Others were literally torn to pieces by the dog named "Lord" belonging to the camp commander Bachmeyer who sicced it on the inmates. On 30 April 33, inmates of the camp office were ordered to assemble the court yard. There they were shot like wild animals by SS Oberscharfuehrer Niedermeyer and the Gestapoagent Polaska. Altogether, as far as I know, 65,000 inmates were murdered in Mauthausen. In most cases, I myself took part in the executions.

Frequently I joined in the shooting with a small calibre weapon. SS men were trained on the rifle ranges where inmates were used targets. Reichsminister Himmler and SS Obergruppenfuehrer (Lt. General) Kaltenbrunner ordered me to kill all inmates if the frontlines approached Mauthausen. I had orders from Berlin to blow up Mauthausen and Gusen including all the inmates. All inmates were to be brought into the Gusen mine and blown up. The blasting was to be carried out by SS Obergruppenfuehrers Wolfram and Ackermann. Pohl issued the order "

Ziereis died shortly after the interrogation.

The above copy is a correct excerpt from the Austrian court files in the trial of Dr. Guido Schmidt et al as published in the Wiener Arbeiterzeitung from September 20, 1945.

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General view of the camp after the liberation

Before the construction of the first Gusen Camp the prisoners of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp hat to march every day some 4km to reach the stone-quarries at Gusen. Because the death of more than 150 prisoners in winter 1938 to 1939 due to that everyday-march, decision was made in December 1939 to build a sub-camp of Mauthausen at Gusen. 400 German and Austrian prisoners from Mauthausen marched every day from Mauthausen to Gusen to construct some prisoners´ barracks, a few SS-barracks and an electric fence at Gusen until March 1940. At first, both camps (Mauthausen and Gusen) were under the command of the SS-Standartenfuehrer Franz Ziereis. In March 1940, SS-captain Karl Chmielewski came from KZ Sachsenhausen to be commander of the KZ Gusen Camp until 1943.

The first group of inmates was composed of German and Austrian political opponents and priests. These first prisoners had to work in the stone-quarries or had to build new installations in the camps. Due to the conditions of works and the incredible brutalities of the guards, this first group of inmates died after only some weeks. After the invasion of Poland by the Nazis, hundreds Polish Intellectuals and civilians were sent to Gusen and exterminated in the stone-quarry. The first group of Polish inmates arrived on March 9th, 1940. Within one year the population of Gusen grew from 800 to 4,000 inmates in spring 1941. More than 1,522 of them died in 1940 due to the heavy work in the stone-quarries of Gusen and the brick-production plant at Lungitz (became later Gusen III). End of 1941, the next group of inmates to be exterminated at Gusen by heaviest work had been Soviet Prisoners of War. This group of inmates was also the first to be gassed in 1942.

Several Spanish republican prisoners were sent also sent to Gusen and exterminated. More than 2,000 of them had to work in the stone-quarries and very few of them survived.

Several atrocities were committed by the SS and the kapos at Gusen. One of the "specialities" of this camp "Todebadeaktionen" (death bath action). This method of murder was the idea of SS sergeant Jentzsch. The SS captain Chmielewski was enthusiastic and decided to apply this new form of execution to the inmates. The inmates were selected to the "bath" during the appeal: inmates unable to work or ill. They were then sent to the "bath room" and had to stay naked under the showers. Then icy water under high pressure falled from the showers. The temperature of the bodies was falling down and caused a long and painful agony. Often, the inmates died only after an half-hour... During his trial, SS captain Chmielewski declared that the life of ill inmates and Jews had absolutely no value for him...

Two other camps were established later at Gusen: Gusen II (St Georgen) and Gusen III (Lungitz). The conditions of life in these two camps were incredible. The inmates had a surname for Gusen II : "The Hell of the hells"...

Austrian civilians forced to burry the victims of Gusen...

The three camps at Gusen were liberated on May 5th, 1945 by the rec.squadron of sergeant Albert J.Kosiek. More than 37,000 inmates died at Gusen. This is more than 1/3 of all the victims of all the other camps located in Austria...

For more informations about the camps of Gusen, check the excellent site KZ Mauthausen Gusen: This site contains a huge documentation about this three camps.

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