Telling History Through Dance: Keeping Memory Alive Through Rhythm

At 6 p.m. on May 8, there is loud jazz music coming from the central square in Bremen. Forty people, young and old are dancing an energetic routine to the sound of the American song “Jeepers Creepers” in front of an audience of around 80. The song was once sung in secret by prisoners at Mohringen concentration camp. Among them was Günter Discher, who was imprisoned at this “police youth protection camp” along with 16 other young people from Hamburg because of their love of American jazz and swing. Having survived humiliation, torture, and forced labor, Discher later became a historical eyewitness who spoke about his imprisonment and the role of music as a form of resistance in the camp. “That’s why we chose this song for our swing flash mob,” says Natalie Reinsch of the Bremen Alliance for German-Czech Cooperation. “Thanks to the many international dancers who joined in, we were able to reach about 1,000 people with our European flash mob on May 8.”

Not only in Bremen, but also in Prague, Gdańsk, Hamburg, Pinneberg, Oldenburg, Aachen, Lychow, Berlin, and Cologne, members of the international swing community commemorated the persecution of music and youth cultures under National Socialism. They developed and rehearsed the choreography for their “Liberation Dance” together, performing it on May 8, the anniversary of the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

Initiated by the Bremen Alliance for German-Czech Cooperation, the project “National Socialist Injustice ‘Degenerate Music’” takes a comparative and historically grounded look at the Nazi regime’s persecution of “swing youth” in northwestern Germany, the Czech Potápky subculture, and the swing and jazz music scene in occupied Poland. Through cooperation with partners from Germany, Poland, and Czechia and drawing on a variety of educational approaches, the project team brings the stories of this largely forgotten victim group to public attention. 

In addition to the dance workshops, they also offer panel discussions and “swing walks” to shed light on the persecution of jazz musicians and dancers under the Nazi regime. But this is not the only educational approach taken by the Bremen-based project. Together with the Gdynia City Museum and students at Charles University in Prague, the team is developing an international exhibition on the Nazi persecution of youth cultures. Documentary filmmaker Josef Lustig is currently producing a film in Prague about the “ghetto swingers” at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The project team also uses social media to share stories about this largely unknown group of victims and engage new audiences in all three countries, including members of the international swing community, encouraging them to confront the history of Nazi injustice and draw lessons for the present.