Greek-Jewish choral performance soars above Nazi darkness

Australian Greek and Jewish choirs joined forces in Sydney last weekend to perform The Ballad of Mauthausen song cycle in an inspirational expression of shared humanity.

It’s a magnificent outcome from history’s darkest moment – a sublime piece of music which conveys a love story across cultures within the shadow of a Nazi concentration camp. It ranks among the most stirring musical compositions ever written in the Greek language and possibly in any language. Even if one cannot understand the lyrics, the pain and the pathos are palpable.

In a deeply moving event last Sunday evening - unprecedented in this country - the Australian Hellenic Choir and Sydney Jewish Choral Society joined forces in an overflowing Clancy Auditorium at the University of NSW to perform The Ballad of Mauthausen in an inspirational cross-cultural expression of shared humanity. 

A four-part song cycle, The Ballad of Mauthausen had its origins in the remarkable love story that flowered in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria during World War II between a Greek prisoner, Lakovos Kambanellis, and Janina Rimkoute, a Lithuanian Jewish female prisoner.

Their love affair was set against the backdrop of the hangings, executions, brutality and humiliation they experienced and witnessed on a daily basis. 

The unlikely sanctuary for their clandestine encounters in the months which followed liberation was the top of an abandoned machine-gun tower overlooking the camp, with the base of the gun emplacement doubling as a clothes hanger and Kambanellis’s broken shoes serving as a pillow on the wooden floor.

The brainchild for this innovative and remarkable event – which was possibly a world-first – came from James Tsolakis, President of the Australian Hellenic Choir, who took the idea to Anne Spira, Chair of the Sydney Jewish Choral Society.