My PhD research, supervised by Emeritus Professor of Music Jeremy Barham, investigates the life and work of the Polish composer Leon Kaczmarek (1903–1978), specifically the compositions he wrote throughout the time of his imprisonment in the Nazi Dachau concentration camp in Germany between 1940 and 1945. The study represents a compelling contribution to the field by unearthing the biography and the musical heritage of a previously unexplored composer of the 20th century, one of the most prolific from the Nazi concentration camps. Through a combination of textual investigation, musical analysis, historical musicology, and performance practice, the research brings back to light previously unknown works from the Holocaust period.

By offering a unique scholarly framework to examine the ways in which Leon Kaczmarek affirmed his own artistic identity, this project reviews the meaning of his pieces and how they relate to compositions written in other camps, the extent of his collaborations with his fellow prisoners in Dachau, as well as the human experience behind their works in order to understand how they responded to extremely threatening circumstances. In considering the multifaceted perspectives through which Kaczmarek had created his compositions, with the help of edited scores and recordings, this research restores the voices of marginalized individuals from the ashes of historical oblivion to eternal remembrance, serving as a vehicle to memorialize the Holocaust for future generations.