self-suYciency also sometimes functioned as a powerful means of control. In
an ironic inversion of the spiritual resistance argument, it seems that music was one of many activities tolerated by the SS precisely because by diverting their attention from what was really happening to them, it helped in deXect- ing any urge on the part of the victims to resist. It has been argued elsewhere that similar motivations underlay the Propagandaamts support for cheap forms of amusement in the occupied countries.44 Jewish self-suYciency was also most likely tolerated to the extent that it was because the Nazis perceived it as having little political potency. A memorandum from the Rassenpolitischesamt on 25 November 1939 read: Jewish political groups should be forbidden along with Polish ones. But Jewish cultural societies might be more tolerated than Polish ones. Jews may certainly be allowed more freedom in this respect than Poles, for the Jews have no such real political power as have the Poles.45
Ultimately, as this memo suggests, cultural activities were permitted because
they were unlikely to change in any signiWcant way the fate of the ghetto populations. Perhaps the most representative and popular of the musical events aimed at the Warsaw ghetto masses were found in the theatres. Within weeks of the sealing of the ghetto, Gazeta Zydowska reported that oYcial permission had been granted for the establishment of a theatre. Like other leisure activities, this was almost certainly viewed by the authorities as a way of keeping the ghetto population docile. Nonetheless, it was an important development for musical life. Serious dramas were sometimes presented, but the most common entertainments were revues consisting of comic sketches and musical pieces.46 Five professional theatres operated in the ghetto. The Wrst, a Yiddish theatre called the Eldorado, was opened on 6 December 1940. The actor Simcha Pustel and the Zeyderman family (David, his wife Chana Lerner, and their son Harry) performed at this venue, and a resident orchestra played under the baton of A. Walstein. A favourable review in Gazeta Zydowska on 20 December 1940 described the opening presentation: a variety show in- cluding mens choir, Chassidic dancing, musical comedy, and other skits. At least eight additional programmes were staged between January and August 1941; they included the shows Rivkele dem rebns tokhter (Rivke the Rabbis