Music, Violence, Memory in Auschwitz-Birkenau

Location: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, Oświęcim, Poland
Date: 26–28 November 2025
Registration: Please use the registration form until 10th November, no attendence fee.
For questions please contact: lidiia.krier@uni-bayreuth.de

Lagerorchester in Auschwitz © Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum

The conference Music, Violence, Memory in Auschwitz-Birkenau is jointly organized by the Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU) in Poznań, Poland, and the Research Institute for Music Theater (fimt) of the University of Bayreuth (UBT) in cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. It will take place 26–28 November 2025 in Oświęcim, Poland. The conference will examine how the memory of music and violence in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp functions today. By creating this project, we hope to contribute to reflection, discussion, and more nuanced understanding of music practices in camps in general, and their connection to practices of violence in particular.

The conference in Oświęcim will focus on three thematic aspects which are found in its title: violence, memory, and spatiality of the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Music will serve as a key reference linking these three aspects. Due to the complexity of the given topic – encompassing methodological, source-related, and historiographical aspects – the conference program is divided into two parts: I. History Project (26–27 November) and II. Memory Project (28 November).

Since Auschwitz is one of the most well-known concentration and extermination camp in the contemporary remembrance culture, it is often regarded as a “symbol” of the Shoah and thus as a focal point for the culture of remembrance. One of the major programmatic goals of the whole project is to hold it directly at the site of the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Therefore, by holding the conference in Oświęcim we aim to highlight the relevance of continued research into the events from 80 years ago and the importance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial to the culture of remembrance today.

Among other goals, the conference seeks to foster international exchange and intercultural dialogue between Poland and Germany and to actively involve young scholars, to help strengthen the culture of remembrance of the Shoah. To this end, the program includes paper presentations by internationally renowned scholars from Poland, the USA, the UK, France, Spain, and Germany, as well as excursions for student groups from Poznań and Bayreuth.

Conference organizers

Adam Mickiewicz University

Prof. Dr. Krzysztof Kozłowski
Wojciech Sławnikowski, M. A.
Zuzanna Karpinska, M. A.

University of Bayreuth (fimt)

Prof. Dr. Anno Mungen
Lidiia Krier, M. A.
Martin Gruber, M. A.
Lissy Dierks

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Memorial and Museum

Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński
Dr. Jacek Lachendro
Katarzyna Kotula
Adelina Hetnar

Conference Program

For the conference program, the format of paper presentation includes 30-minute presentation and 20-minute discussion. The conference language is English.

Day 0 (Tuesday, 25.11.2025)

Till Evening Arrival
19.00 Dinner

Part 1. The History Project
Day 1	(Wednesday, 26.11.2025)
9-10.30	Registration
10.30-11	Opening, welcome addresses (Prof. Dr. Krzysztof Kozłowski, Prof. Dr. Anno Mungen)
11-12.00	Presentation 1 (Keynote): Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz – Topic tba
12-13.30	Lunch break

	Section 1: General Approaches to Music and Violence
13.30-14.30	Presentation 2: Prof. Dr. Morag J. Grant – "Music, ritual and the framing of genocide"
14.30-15.30	Presentation 3: M.A. Nikola Vasilijević – “The Musical Regime: Phenomenological and discursive challenges for musicology”
15.30-16.30	Presentation 4: Dr. Élise Petit – “Music and Violence in Nazi Camps: Towards a Topographic Approach”
16.30-17.00	Coffee break

	Section 2: The Arts and the Holocaust
17.00-18.00	Presentation 5: Prof. Dr. Laura Morowitz – “Violence, Trauma and the Annihilation of the Self in Jerzy Adam Brandhuber’s Auschwitz Cycle (1946)”
18.00-19.30	Double Presentation 6: The Zone of Interest Prof. Dr. Sven Kramer – “Gaze Control in Son of Saul and The Zone of Interest” Prof. Dr. Marek Kaźmierczak – „(After)images «in spite of everything.» The Zone of Interest in the context of film representations of Auschwitz”
20.00	Dinner

Day 2	(Thursday, 27.11.2025)
	Section 3: Space, Sound, and Music
8-11.30	Guided tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau site with Renata Koszyk
11.30-13.00	Lunch break
	Section 4: Performing Music
13-14.00	Presentation 7: Prof. Dr. Patricia Hall – “Performing Foxtrots from Auschwitz-Birkenau”
14-15.00	Presentation 8: Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz – Topic tba
15-15.30	Coffee break
15.30-16.30	Presentation 9: Prof. Dr. Lori Weintrob & Prof. Dr. Thomas Juneau – Musical Tributes to "One Man from Krakow"
16.30-17.30	Presentation 10: Dr. Jacek Lachendro – Topic tba
17.30-18.30	Presentation 11: Prof. Dr. Anno Mungen – “Robert Schumann’s Träumerei in Auschwitz-Birkenau“
	Discussion on the “History Project"
18.30	Dinner

Part 2. The Memory Project
Day 3	(Friday, 28.11.2025)
9-10.00	Workshop for students: M.A. Zuzanna Karpińska and M.A. Martin Gruber – Topic tba
10-11.00	Presentation 12: Dr. Katarzyna Naliwajek – “Female German-Jewish musicians – victims of Auschwitz”
11-12.00	Presentation 13: Prof. Dr. Mikołaj Jazdon – “Archaeology of Auschwitz-Birkenau”
12-13.00	Presentation 14: Prof. Dr. Christine Hoppe – “Memory in Sound, Materiality: A Chopin Étude and a Cello as Media of Musical Remembrance”
13-14.00	Lunch break
14-15.00	Presentation 14: Prof. Dr. Andrea Bombi “Sonic mnemagogues: the phonosphere of If this is a man”
15-16.00	Lecture recital: M.A. Chiara Antico – “Collecting and Embodying Auschwitz Music Repertoire as a Living Archive: The Resonances Project”
16-17.30	Screening of the film Lilac/Bez and Discussion on the “Memory Project” with Prof. Dr. Laura Morowitz, Prof. Dr. Mikołaj Jazdon, and Prof. Dr. Marek Kaźmierczak
From 17.30	Departure