1. The Ballad of Mauthausen
by Greek poet Iakovos Kambanellis
2. Historical background
The book
“Mauthousen”
World War 2 Iakovos Kambanellis, a Greek
author and poet, was imprisoned by the
Nazis at the Mauthausen concentration
camp in Austria where he witnessed the
Nazi atrocities. Over 100,000 victims died
at the camp. Kambanellis survived the
incarceration at the Nazi concentration
camp and, after the liberation by the allies,
started writing a book based on the events.
Finally, iIn December 1965, Kambanellis
published his book Mauthausen.
3. Inception and theme
While the book was being
prepared for publication,
Kambanellis wrote four poems
based on four chapters in his
book and gave the poems to his
friend Mikis Theodorakis who was
very receptive to the idea of
composing the music for them. So
created the "Mauthausen Trilogy"
4. Structure
The title of the songs was "The Ballad of Mauthausen" and
contained four arias: "Asma Asmaton" (Song of Songs) with
verses inspired to a degree by erotic lyrics from the biblical
Asma Asmaton and includes the lyrics Ti oraia pou einai i
agapi mou (How beautiful is my beloved). The second song
was "Andonis" (Anthony), followed by "Drapetis" (Runaway)
and "Otan Teleiosi o Polemos" (When the War Ends). The
composition is a music cycle.
5. Asma
Asmaton
(Song of
Songs)
I
In "Asma Asmaton" the struggle of the young male prisoner is
depicted as he is trying hopelessly to locate his love. It
reflects Kambanellis's own experience at Mauthasen with a
Lithuanian-Jewish woman, as it recounts the love affair
between a young Greek prisoner and his Jewish love.
Kambanellis uses a question from the biblical "Song of Songs"
3:3: "Have you seen the one I love?" as the refrain for his
lyrics.
In the lyrics, the hero is asking the girls of the concentration
camps if they saw the girl he loves: "Girls of Auschwitz, girls of
Dachau, have you seen the one I love?" and the reply is: "We
saw her on a long journey. She no longer had her dress nor the
little comb in her hair". then asks again: "Girls of Mauthausen,
girls of Belsen, have you seen the one I love? and gets the
reply: "We saw her in the frozen square with a number in her
white hand, with a yellow star on her heart.
6. Andonis
I
In "Andonis", the suffering of the imprisoned Jews doing hard
labour, at the Mauthausen quarries is told, "mixed with a
revolutionary and subversive mood". Andonis is a Greek
prisoner who tries to help his Jewish friend carry a heavy
boulder up an incline of 180 steps after his friend cannot
work any longer and asks Andonis to help him. The boulders
are used to pave the streets of Vienna.The lyrics state: "Help
is an insult. Compassion a curse", indicating that helping
another inmate is severely punished by the Nazi guards.
However, Andonis helps his friend without hesitation. A Nazi
guard intervenes and, to punish Andonis, instructs him to
carry a boulder twice as heavy. Andonis then chooses an even
heavier boulder than the one the Nazi guard showed him and
carries it to the top instead. Andonis states his name in
Greek: "Μένα με λένε Αντώνη, κι' αν είσαι άντρας έλα δω στο
μαρμαρένιο αλώνι" ("My name is Andonis, and if you are a man
come here on the marble threshing floor"), challenging the
guard and implying that real men are fighting for their lives in
the Nazi quarry. The image of the marble threshing-floor is
common in Greek folk literature, deriving from the Akritic
songs, where the eponymous hero, Digenis Akritas, "as a kind
of representative of mankind's struggles with Charos, death,
at the marble threshing-floor"
7. Drapetis In "Drapetis", the adventure of an escapee,
"Yannos Ber from The North", is narrated
through the song, as is also his recapture by the
SS which leads to his "tragic fate".
8. When the
war ends
The finale "Otan Teleiosi o Polemos" is a fantasy
about the reunion of the two lovers. It goes full
circle with the girl from "Song of Songs"
appearing as "the girl with the fearful eyes" and
"the girl with the frozen hand", and shows the
protagonist of the first part, "Asma Asmaton",
seeking love everywhere inside the concentration
camp as a means of erasing Death, singing the
words: “Make love at midday, in all of Death's
places until his Shadow disappears".
