06
The Story
Behind Ismus
Options; the world turns for them or for the lack of them. My grandparents’ generation had wonderful dreams but was witness to changes that transformed their greatest ideologies into isms, totalitarian crystallizations resulting in millions of dead. The experience of losing everything but hope, the need to fight for life, the protection of wife and children always the first option in a way of living that faced the hardest of circumstances – a minimum of resources, a need for total concentration, each moment being essential to life. Time for response is almost nought, thinking is a reflex action, mistakes can cost a life. And despite threats, brutal forces, deprivation , oppression and the loss of meaning, only one course rescued the will to go on living and dreaming – the course of integrity. The choice of staying true to oneself, to your essence, a voice of your own, unheard by others. Trust, loyalty, partnership, familiar terms, a blood pact to overcome obstacles. In the end, a new beginning. New realities, same principles. The reconstruction of possibilities, of better options, future generations. Memories carry the power to overcome the unbearable and impossible past. Intangible, this material made up of dreams and memories could only be concreted in the form of sounds – ISMUS SYMPHONY, consisting of five chapters: Homeland, War Destiny, Longing, Hope, Liberty.
Spoken from the heart, written by another hand, doing without having the means to, vital force as leitmotiv.
From your grandson, everlasting thanks. To hear your voice today, 59 years after its only audition is more than a fullfilment. To honour the source, to renew your message and the richness of your sounds and harmonic tones - the reedition of this score recomposes a larger whole, offering the option to be played.
Marcelo Rogozinski
12/03/07
Benjamin Boleslaw Rogozinski was a Polish Jew who fled his country with his wife and two small children when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. Arriving at the border, he found that the Russians were compelling refugees to accept Russian citizenship. He refused to do so and the family was sent to Siberia as enemies of the regime.
On the trip to Siberia on a cargo train, Benjamin’s younger son fell ill; yet there were no provisions at all on the train, even for healthy people. The child grew weaker and weaker and finally, at a train stop, Benjamin jumped to the platform with the child in his arms. He landed in front of a wall of Russian soldiers pointing their guns at him, ordering him to return to the train. Benjamin replied that they could kill him if necessary, but they must find food and medicine for his sick child. His brazen act of defiance worked and this attitude became a hallmark of his entire life.
The family stayed in a camp in Siberia for two years (being sent to Kazakstan afterwards). During this time, the Russians organized the Polish troops to fight the Nazis alongside the Soviet Army. In 1942, Benjamin was drafted by the Stalin regime and enlisted in the “Kosciusko” division of this Polish army. He fought all the way from Smolensk to Berlin and was awarded 13 medals for bravery.
On the way to re-conquering Poland, Officer Rogozinski asked for a leave of absence and went to Lublin (the temporary capital of Poland). There, he located the office of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and — wearing his campaign uniform — went straight in to see the Minister, ignoring all the secretaries who tried to stop him. He saluted the Minister, put his gun on the table, and stated that he would only go on fighting and winning the war if the Minister promised that his family should be the first to return from exile in Kazakstan. The promise was made and the family was reunited in Moscow in May of 1945, in time to see the fireworks in Red Square on V-Day.
The Rogozinski’s spent a short time in Poland, but the climate seemed too hostile to them and they moved to Munich. There, Benjamin composed the symphony he called Ismus, which literally translates as “-isms,” referring to all of the belief systems that had buffeted and shaped their lives, including Judaism, Nazism, Communism, anti-Semitism, Fascism, patriotism and Zionism. Ismus was inspired by the saga Benjamin had just lived and by the imminent creation of the state of Israel.
In his inimitable style, Benjamin did not know how to write music, but he played all the parts of his symphony on the piano and hired a professor from the local conservatory to write the score. The movements are as follows:
- Heimat ( Pátria) Fatherland
- Kriegschiksaal (Destino da Guerra) War Destiny
- Sehnsucht (Anseio / Saudade) Longing
- Hoffnung (esperança) Hope
- Freiheit (Liberdade) Freedom
The symphony was performed and broadcast live in 1948 by the state radio orchestra (Radio Munich), then under American control. The broadcast honored the Jewish holiday of Passover, which celebrates the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt into freedom, centuries earlier. As far as Benjamin’s descendants can determine, this broadcast was the only time that Ismus was ever performed. The family has archival paper documentation of this Passover broadcast (newspaper reviews, etc.), but no audio recording exists.
In 1949, Benjamin moved his family to Brazil, where he had other relatives, to create a new life. He died there in 1981. His wife still survives at age 102 and has five great grand-children. Their two sons live in Rio: Rudolf Tadeusz , born in 1933, is an accomplished sales representative who speaks five languages. Robert Michal, born in 1938, is an architect and so is his only son.
In 2006, Rudolf Rogozinski’s three children — two musicians and one film maker — started the arduous process of rescuing their family legacy, Ismus. They dream of having the symphony performed again in 2008, on the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast. The original, hand-written manuscript has been scanned and transcribed into contemporary musical notation. A MIDI version of the symphony (computer-generated music) has also been created (click here for download options). Benjamin’s grandchildren hope to find an orchestra in Brazil, Europe, Israel or the United States that wants to participate in this historic act of commemoration.
Contact:
Marcelo Rogozinski
info@rogozinski.com.br
