На Christmas Day in 1944, Hans Martin was injured as a prisoner of war in military hospitals Atkarsk. Although the Russian and German West still struggling with each other and should be dead, more than one million soldiers and civilians after the war, allowed the politicians and the medical officer and senior management that the enemies were allowed to celebrate Christmas. Here is a sober report on the event:
Memories of Hans Martin
The appearance of "Atkarsk Cantata" and the Christmas 1944 in captivity
hot summer in 1944 was over, and now and the autumn days grew shorter. In the Tatar steppes lying deep snow and cold wind blowing. Prisoners of war thin, dressed only in shirt, trousers and slippers, moved through the corridors of the infirmary, one of the few stone buildings in Atkarsk. A city with 30.000 - 40.000 inhabitants, is located 350 km north of Stalingrad, and 650 km south-east of Moscow.
At Christmas Something must happen to us all that was clear. We (the monk of the Franciscan Order Notker Klenk, and I) sat in a late November night after night together and thought about how to organize a Christmas party. This happened long before they were issued permission from the Russian leadership. Gradually, was born a text based on Scripture and his own thoughts. Music was written quickly, and after work on the text, the notes were written on brown wrapping paper. Rehearsals began immediately. Physician Dr. Hans Huber and architecture students Lothar Schmidt became soloists, chorus dutifully repitiroval, and Dr. Hugo Ryud, a doctor from the city of Erlangen (years of life: 29/07/1909 - 06/01/1960) took over the musical accompaniment the piano.
Christmas evening of the fifth year of the war approached. In the hospital, in the stairwell, were two Christmas trees that were allowed to personally military leadership. Dinner was postponed an hour earlier to make the holiday began at 8:00 pm.
This afternoon, the whole building vanity prevailed. In a large Hall, where 120 patients were were delivered both trees, which, along with cotton wool.
dark. Preliminary work has been finished. After dinner, the doors of the hall opened. All hastened to take their places. Front, right, there were places for the Russian doctors, guards and German doctors. Those who could move around, come by themselves; for bed lezhalki were installed, the rest were sitting on blankets. Doors in corridor was open, so about 1000 people could take part in the evening. At 8 o'clock there were doctors, headed by a little woman - the head physician. Praznik started.
«Holy Night, instilling hope in the heart of heaven ..." So he began to sing chorus at the beginning of the holiday, and then had spoken monk Notker, which we called Joseph, and who wrote the text for the cantata. Then came the solemn moment. But as soon as the first chords sounded, there was a first failure. Clap! And we were all in the dark. Choir had just sung "the song was played and continue to ...», sing on. But for this event / we were ready. The hall burned two kerosene lamps: one on the piano, the other was at the soloists, who were not very confident in myself and worried. In spite of the lamp, Dr. Hugo Ryud, who was captured after the battle of Stalingrad, was quite tense, to read the notes. Paper, we received in captivity, was bad, pen and ink - even worse.
attempt with a second lamp has failed - it has fallen into the open piano, the contents spilled out onto the string. It was one little noticed, as did the fact that the tenor Lothar Schmidt was forced to repeat his first words. Unexpected darkness so vzolnovala him that he forgot everything, and sang wrong.
But after that moment there were no more problems ....
details Atkarsk Christmas кантата и специальной выставке в музее Аткарск
