Ghetto Swingers

The Ghetto Swingers were a jazz band organised in the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt.

[1][2] The original amateur Czech band playing in the Café of the Ghetto was led by Eric Vogel and Pavel Libensky.

[5] After the Red Cross visit to the camp, Commandant Karl Rahm instructed Gerron to make a propaganda film.

Footage shows the Ghetto Swingers playing on the wooden pavilion built for Karel Ančerl's string orchestra in the town's main square.

Schumann's 1997 biography[8] includes a photo of the Ghetto Swingers, with Roman, Schumann, Weiss (clarinet and saxophone), Fritz Goldschmidt (guitar), Nettl (accordion), Jetti Kantor and Ratner (violin), Josef Taussig (trombone)[9] and others; Kohn, Chokkes, and Erich Vogel (trumpet), Donde (tenor saxophone), Pavel Libensky (double bass), and Fredy Haber (tenor).

From left to right: three standing saxophone players, one sitting guitar player, one accordion player, one fiddler, one conductor and one barely visible drummer. All are men and wear six-pointed stars.
The Ghetto Swingers playing in the 1944 propaganda film.
From left to right: two standing saxophone players, one sitting guitar player, one accordion player, one fiddler, one conductor and one drummer. All are men and wear six-pointed stars.
Another frame of the film