Artists, the Nazis – Resistance and Collaboration
Wilhelm Furtwangler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Furtw%C3%A4ngler
Furtwangler was one of the finest conductors of his time. His specialty was the German romantic composers like Beethoven, Brahms. Buckner, Schubert, Mahler and Wagner. He headed the Berlin Philharmonic for many years from 1922 to 1945. He stayed in Germany and led and protected the Berlin and Vienna orchestras during Hitler’s ascendancy. Most of Germany’s musical greats left for the US or England. Some of those who stayed, like Herbert von Karajan, joined the NAZI party; others resisted the Nazi regime.
Furtwangler stayed and resisted within limits. As Germany’s greatest conductor of this time, he was subjected to enormous pressure by the Nazi regime to stay as a symbol of Germany’s historical musical and cultural excellence. He stayed, refused to play the Nazi anthems, give the Heil Hitler salute, perform in front of the swastika, or participate in their propaganda.
He had enormous leverage due to his preeminence in German culture and was able by personally interceding with the top Nazi leadership to save many German musicians and their families from losing their jobs and being sent to the gas chambers. He publicly opposed the regime, but not enough to be sent to a concentration camp and be executed. He walked a fine line in the middle of hell. He escaped to Switzerland from Austria shortly before he was to be arrested and killed by the Gestapo in January 1945.
Later on, he explained that he stayed for German music and the German people, and that he did all he could to save German musicians from the Third Reich. Others testified to his unstinting efforts.
He had said of Hitler in 1932, "This hissing street pedlar (sic) will never get anywhere in Germany". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Furtw%C3%A4ngler He was very very wrong.
He wrote in 1933 "The Jewish question in musical spheres: a race of brilliant people!" He threatened that if boycotts against Jews were extended to artistic activities, he would resign all his posts immediately, concluding that "at any rate to continue giving concerts would be quite impossible without [the Jews] - to remove them would be an operation which would result in the death of the patient." His attitudes towards other less exalted Jews were less than exemplary.
Other emigres said the Furtwangler should have left because of the black eye to the Nazis if this extraordinary musician left his posts and his native land. https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/furtwangler-wilhelm/
Which is the greater courage to leave and denounce Hitler from the safety of the US or to stay, to resist, and to support the musicians, their families, and the people you love and to conduct the music that is at the heart of your being and of human existence? http://www.classicalnotes.net/features/furtwangler.html How effective are you in either context? How hard is your resistance? What is the impact on your soul, on your very being? And as a musician, how effectively do you communicate that?
What would you do under these circumstances? There are people all over the world facing this question under intolerable conditions. It is not out of the question that we would face them here.