Nazi-era singer returns to stage

[Wanted Man]

Nazi-era singer returns to stage



It was Heesters' first performance in his homeland since the 1960s

A 104-year-old Dutch cabaret singer who once performed in Nazi Germany has given a concert in the Netherlands for the first time in four decades.

There were protests and tight security around the theatre in Amersfoort where Johannes Heesters appeared.

Although Heesters insists he never espoused Nazi politics, he performed for Adolf Hitler and visited the Dachau concentration camp.

Correspondents say many Dutch people have never forgiven him.

"He kept singing for the Nazi regime, for the Wehrmacht, and he earned millions," said Piet Schouten, representative of a committee formed to protest against Saturday's performance.

"We have a problem with that on behalf of all the victims," he told national broadcaster NOS.

Johannes Heesters, born Johan, began his career in Amsterdam in the 1920s and moved to Germany in 1935, where he enjoyed a successful career.

Heesters was never accused of being a Nazi propagandist, and the Allies allowed him to continue performing after the war.

He was booed off the stage in Amsterdam when he previously tried to stage a comeback in the early 1960s.

Since then he has performed in other countries, notably Germany and Austria.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7249119.stm

[Wanted Man]

Background

During the concert, there was a protest staged by the "Committee Heesters Raus", including the Anti-Fascist former Resistance Fighters/League of Anti-Fascists, New Communist Party-NCPN and Communist Youth Movement. As the planning for the action went on, we gained support from various Jewish and anti-fascist organizations.

Mr Heesters has continuously lied about his past. Free newspaper "De Pers" discovered in January that Heesters had invested money into the German war industry. After the war, he had also complained about the loss of his mansion. What he failed to mention is that he received it in 1938, because the Jewish owners had to flee. Moreover, the West German government compensated him for it, so it's ridiculous to say that he had "lost everything".

De Pers also found that during the war, he offered his services to German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. He signed the letter with "Heil Hitler!"



Heesters later admitted that he had visited concentration camp Dachau, but that he was "lured" there by the Germans, and never actually sang. In yesterday's regional paper "De Gelderlander", this turned out to be yet another lie. An art historian had interviewed several eyewitnesses who saw him sing.

The protest

About fifty people showed up to the protest, including two comrades dressed as camp prisoners. Banners were displayed such as "Never again fascism" and "My grandfather was also in Dachau". There was massive media attention from paper AD, De Pers, the NOS news, BBC, some German media, etc. An anti-fascist choir sang Dutch translations of Bella Ciao, Solidaritätslied, Die Moorsoldaten (Peat Bog Soldiers), and Partisanen vom Amur.

Before the protests, posters on ScumFront had threatened to appear with brass knuckles and firebombs. In practice, the fascists managed to muster a grand total of seven boneheads, who shouted "Communism = terror" and threw eggs (or so the media said, I didn't see any, maybe their aim is bad!). The mounted cops soon chased them away, three were arrested. Some other boneheads lurked in the alleys, hoping to jump anyone leaving the protest alone, but everyone got home safely.

Songs

Bella Ciao
Solidaritätslied
Peat Bog Soldiers, by Paul Robeson
Partisanen vom Amur

[Wanted Man]

Facing the music

by Perro de Jong
15-02-2008


If the assimilation of immigrants is a crime against humanity, as Turkish prime-minister Tayyip Erdogan claimed on a recent visit to Germany, then at least Dutch singer Johan Heesters has nothing to worry about.

Heesters is in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest performing artist, and it's been more than seventy years since he moved from Amsterdam to Berlin, never to return. But even at 104, he has retained a surprising amount of Dutch, he sings sentimental songs about Amsterdam and he speaks German with a strong accent.

Non-assimilated yet successful: he would have been the perfect role model for Mr Erdogan to hold up as he warned Turkish immigrants against being brainwashed by the German government into giving up their birthright.

"It's largely thanks to Heesters", writes journalist Antoine Verbij, "that our neighbours now think the Dutch are all relaxed, charming and easygoing people."


Composite of Johan Heesters (photo taken 2004) in front of the Dachau orchestra (1941).

Protests
You'd think the Netherlands would be grateful for such a prominent cultural ambassador, and greet him with fanfares or applause. Anything in fact but the angry protests that followed the news of his return to the Netherlands after an absence of nearly four decades for one final time, to grace us with one final performance.

One final opportunity to hear the songs that made Adolf Hitler such a fan. O sorry, did I not mention that? The two men are supposed to have met at one of the soirees for music lovers given by the Wagner family. From then on, Hitler travelled great distances to hear the Dutchman sing about gay hussars and merry widows, while in the background a little something happened that historians like to refer to as 'World War II'.

Dachau orchestra
Someone who probably never got an invitation to one of the Wagners' wingdings was Herbert Zipper, even though he was just one year younger than Heesters and had studied at the prestigious Viennese Academy of Music. Being from what the music encyclopedia describes as an 'assimilated' jewish family, Zipper ended up in the concentration camp Dachau instead.

There, he wrote music and helped to set up a ragbag orchestra of camp inmates. The same orchestra, probably, that can be seen playing in a faded black-and-white photograph, made the day Heesters came to visit in May 1942. Mind you, Heesters has always insisted that he didn't want to visit Dachau. He was simply nudged along by some of his uniformed fans.

Be that as it may, Zipper's music is rarely played these days. Just like that of Alexander Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann and all those other composers who were banned by the Nazis. James Conlon, the music director of the Los Angeles Opera, is currently putting on a pioneering season of their music under the rather ominous title "recovered voices."

Operetta
Heesters, on the other hand, never had to recover anything. He continued his career after the war as if nothing had happened, singing the same light operetta repertoire that had brought a tear to Hitler's eye. When he was booed off the stage of the Carré Theatre in Amsterdam, during his first attempt at a Dutch comeback in 1964, he was genuinely shocked and surprised.

Maybe in retrospect, the fact that he was playing Captain Von Trapp on that occasion - the hero in the anti-Nazi musical 'The Sound of Music' - was too much of a stretch even for the swinging Dutch 'sixties. But now that he's back again for a final stab at forgiveness, who am I to tell him to crawl back into his hole?

Forgiveness
That's just the problem, though. Forgiveness generally requires two parties, and Heesters seems more likely to woo a merry widow than to bow his head in humility. He may have all the flair and bravado of the gay hussar, but sadly none of the courage.

In that sense, and despite Mr Erdogan's preposterous claim about crimes against humanity, it might not have been such a bad thing if Heesters had been assimilated just a little bit further by the country that adopted him as an immigrant in 1936. Because the idea that you could force people to like or forgive you by sheer persistence while refusing to face the music - about the fate of Dutch jews, about Srebrenica, about Afghanistan - strikes me as something unmistakeably Dutch.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Radio Netherlands.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/thene...johan-heesters

[RedAnarchist]

Can this guy collapse on stage and die a slow, painful death as the audience laughs at him? Because even that would be too good for him.

[More Fire for the People]

All right then, but we get Marvin Gaye back.

[Edelweiss]

A discussion on Heester's Nazi past hardly took place in the mainstream media here in Germany. There are hardly any controversies about his person here, and he is still very popular. And it's really not like the German mainstream media avoids such discussions, as you can see in Riefenstahl's example.

I wounder why that is. Maybe because he is almost blind, cute 104 year old who is still being able to perform on stage...

[Wanted Man]

Red_Anarchist:

I don't think that's very viable, at the moment. At the very least, one can only hope that he keeps his part of the bargain, and that this is the last we've seen of him. The vitality of the old coot is certainly admirable, but I resent the idea that he had to be granted his "last wish" by sheer persistence, as the Radio Netherlands article above explained so lucidly.

The "last wish" argument is so fallacious and plain wrong, it's hard to imagine that so many prominents have seriously argued it. It's the world upside down: someone continues to lie while spitting in the faces of the people (some still alive, most dead) who did not choose to live in a stolen Jewish mansion, offer their services to Goebbels, write down the tainted salute "Heil Hitler!" or invest in the fascist war machine. If they even had a choice in the matter at all. Then, that person is supposed to get his "last wish"?

At any rate, the decrepit operette singer has made it to the stage and has sung. The performance has spawned resistance, a movement that has become as important in the media as the concert itself. Heesters will disappear, but anti-fascism will not. All to make sure that there can never again be an environment where the likes of Heesters will be able to enrich themselves and lie about it.

[Wanted Man]

A discussion on Heester's Nazi past hardly took place in the mainstream media here in Germany. There is hardly any controversies about his person here, and he is still very popular. And it's really not like the German mainstream media avoids such discussions, as you can see in Riefenstahl's example.

I wounder why that is. Maybe because he almost blind, cute 104 year old who is still being able to perform on stage...

I did notice the bewilderment of many German journalists. So what do you think of the matter?

[Dystisis]

Is he a good singer? Is his performance any good? If not I'd say he should go and die. If it is then who cares about his past..? People tried to live and do their best in the nazi era too. We are so focused on the german nazi era it makes me bored. Unless it comes up that this guy has killed people or something similar, I don't really care. He is an old geezer, who happened to be famous at the time of nazism, if he says he is no longer a fascist then I don't care.

[Edelweiss]

I did notice the bewilderment of many German journalists. So what do you think of the matter?

To be honest, I wasn't even aware of his Nazi past, until I read your post here. Now I can certainly understand the stance of the Dutch anti-fascist, and I do support it.

I guess for the German mainstream media journalists the protests seemed more like a Dutch nationalist, anti-German protest though, than an anti-fascist protest, and I'm quiet sure the coverage will be accordingly.

[Wanted Man]

That was part of the criticism against us in some media, who also thought that the main problem was simply that Heesters lived in Germany at one point. But no, that's not the issue at all. It's making a career, profiting, and investing in Nazi Germany that's the real problem. There were also some German anti-fascists of the Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes present: