Photo Gallery Hip Hop Meets the Holocaust
Who says Jewish songs and rap don't go together? Esther Bejarano, center, on stage with her son Joram (on bass), daughter Edna (in red) and hip hop artist Kutlu Yurtseven during a brief concert on Sunday in Hamburg.
Bejarano was deported to Auschwitz at age 18 and joined the women's orchestra there, playing accordion. "Our function was to play at the gate and play when the work columns marched out in the morning and marched back in in the evening. We also had to play when new trains arrived," she told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
Bejarano has spent years playing resistance songs and tunes from the Ghetto in a band with her son and daughter. Recently, they have teamed up with the Cologne-based rap band Microphone Mafia to create a hip hop CD.
Bejarano together with Kutlu Yurtseven of Microphone Mafia. "At the beginning it was very weird," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE of his cooperation with Bejarano. "But now I really see how music is able to bond people together and break down borders."
Esther Bejarano in the recording studio. "There are those who say that after Auschwitz it is no longer possible to make music," she says. "I disagree. I want to make music as a way of reminding people what happened at Auschwitz."
The artists behind the new album Per la Vita: Kneeling from left are DJ Önder and Rosario Pennino of the Microphone Mafia. Standing from left are Joram, Esther and Edna Bejarano and Kutlu Yurtseven.
