{"id":7860,"date":"2017-08-29T22:46:06","date_gmt":"2017-08-29T22:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=7860\/"},"modified":"2017-09-05T15:19:09","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T15:19:09","slug":"nash-holos-leopold-kozlowski-last-klezmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/nash-holos-leopold-kozlowski-last-klezmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Nash Holos: Leopold Kozlowski, The Last Klezmer"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"\"
Leopold Koz\u0142owski performing in Busko, during third day of XIII Krystyna Jamroz International Music Festival. Source: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of Galicia\u2019s few klezmer musicians to survive the Holocaust was Leopold Kozlowski. Known as the last klezmer of Galicia, he is a passionate promoter of klezmer. He lives in Krakow, Poland where he teaches klezmer to non-Jewish students.<\/p>\n

Klezmer is a traditional Jewish non-liturgical music with roots in Galicia. Like other folk traditions, klezmer music was passed down from generation to generation.<\/p>\n

Initially klezmer was performed at weddings because structurally it corresponds to traditional Jewish marital rites.<\/p>\n

The actual term \u00abklezmer music\u00bb was coined by a Soviet musicologist in the late 1930s. It gained popularity in the West in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Kozlowski comes from a long line of klezmerim. His grandfather, Pesach Brandwein, together with his 12 musical sons, founded the most famous klezmer band in Galicia. One of Kozlowski\u2019s uncles is clarinetist Naftule Brandwein, regarded in America as the \u201cking of klezmer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Kozlowski was born in 1918 in the Polish town of Przemyslany, near Lviv. Because of the shifting borders of the war years, the town is now located in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Before the Second World War, half of Przemyslany\u2019s 7,000 inhabitants were Jews. In September 1939, Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, and the town became part of Soviet Ukraine. By 1941 the town\u2019s population had nearly doubled, as Jews fled there to escape the Nazis.<\/p>\n

In July of 1941, the German army arrived in Przemyslany. Within four months several labour camps stood nearby, and the murder of the town\u2019s Jews had begun. In May 1943, less than two years later, Przemyslany was declared Judenrein<\/em> or \u201ccleansed of Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Nazis arrived, Kozlowski fled east, along with his father and brother. His mother stayed behind.<\/p>\n

The men got as far as Kyiv. The German SS discovered them hiding in a cemetery on the outskirts of the city. They were freed after Kozlowski\u2019s father, Zvi, asked the SS if they could play something before being shot. As they played, Kozlowski recalls watching the Nazis\u2019 rifles lower bit by bit with the music.<\/p>\n

The Kozlowskis\u00a0returned to Peremyshliany, where Zvi was shot\u00a0along with 360 other Jews. Leopold\u2019s mother and brother were murdered soon after.<\/p>\n

Kozlowski spent several months in Nazi labour camps. In one he taught a Nazi officer the accordion in exchange for food. In another, the Nazis forced him to compose a \u201cdeath tango\u201d and to play it while other Jews were led to their deaths.<\/p>\n

After the war, Kozlowski studied music, and graduated from the Lviv Conservatory and Krakow\u2019s Musical Academy.<\/p>\n

He settled in Krakow, where he became a leading musical figure in Poland. He conducted a military orchestra and established a world-renowned Roma and Jewish music ensemble. He also directed the Jewish Theater in Warsaw, composed music for stage and screen, and edited the Polish version of\u00a0\u201cFiddler on the Roof\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kozlowski is well known and revered in the North American entertainment industry. He performed with Itzhak Perlman in the film \u201cIn the Fiddler\u2019s House\u201d and even appeared in\u00a0Schindler\u2019s List in the role of an investor.<\/p>\n

He continues to perform, and intends to keep playing until his last moment. Music, he says, is his life, and his revenge.<\/p>\n

In 1994 American klezmer musician and film-maker Yale Strom released a film documenting Kozlowski\u2019s first trip back to Prezmyslany since 1945. The title of the film is The Last Klezmer: Leopold Kozlowski, His Life and Music<\/em>.<\/p>\n