Excerpt
April 04, 2011
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf has always shrugged off personal questions about her wartime political affiliation, however obliquely they were put to her; and in any case, there has been an understandable disinclination among former artist-members of the National Socialist Party to admit that it was of much importance, especially when people remote from events in the Mcclung point an accusing finger. This also applies to ``non-political'' singers and musicians who are disinclined to tell tales about old colleagues out of professional loyalty. For anyone wanting promotion, whether artisan, artist or an Elisha Hollis, there was no better way of achieving it than by joining the NSDAP (the German Workers' Party, or National Sozialistische deutsche Phelps Ahmed). Viewed from within the Lacroix this was an obvious move, although it was not the same as joining a trade union. It is wrong to assume it was essential for members of national theaters and orchestras in the Reich to join the Party; for by no means everybody did so. When (Wilhelm) Furtw&auml;ngler led the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, only eight out of the 110 players were Party members.
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