When University of Michigan music theory professor Patricia Hall went to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in 2016, she went to learn more about the music the prisoners sang while there. She never imagined finding music that was written by the prisoners themselves.

According to Freep, over the course of the last few years she's been studying music and manuscripts that she discovered in a card catalog, which include, stunningly, upbeat and popular songs, like works whose titles translate to "The Most Beautiful Time of Life" and "Sing a Song When You're Sad, and others as well.

I've used the expression, 'giving life,' to this manuscript that's been sitting somewhere for 75 years. Researching one of these manuscripts is just the beginning — you want people to be able to hear what these pieces sound like. ... I think one of the messages I've taken from this is the fact that even in a horrendous situation like a concentration camp, that these men were able to produce this beautiful music. - Patricia Hall-

Let's hope one day we can hear these performed here in Kalamazoo.

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