Leonard Cohen’s ode to the horror of the Holocaust
Born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Westmount, Quebec, in 1934, Leonard Cohen was just ten years old when the true extent of the Holocaust atrocities filtered through from Nazi Germany. In July 1944, advancing Soviet forces overran the first major Nazi concentration camp, Lublin/Majdanek, established in German-occupied Poland. Just a few months later, they advanced to liberate Auschwitz, the most notorious of the prison camps. Prior rumours could not prepare the troops for the horrors they encountered.
As a member of the global Jewish community, World War II and the Holocaust profoundly affected Cohen. In 1967, Cohen reflected on his ethnic and religious background, “I had a very Messianic childhood,” he said. “I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest.”
A childhood steeped in Jewish literature inspired Cohen’s theological curiosity, which bled into a penchant for poetry in his teen years. Like his fellow Jewish-born songwriter Bob Dylan (born Robert Zimmerman), Cohen gradually embraced a more agnostic theology, exploring Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism throughout his creative journey.
‘You Want It Darker’, the lead single from Cohen’s final album, released several weeks before he died in 2016, brazenly confronted mortality. The verses are accusatory and perhaps sceptical of God, reflecting his ultimately secular lifestyle. However, in the chorus, Cohen sings, “Hineni (Hebrew for ‘Here I am’), I’m ready my Lord.” Here, the ladies’ man reconnects with his cultural heritage but retains an agnostic outlook in the face of death.
Of course, this was nothing new. Cohen frequently manifested Jewish and Biblical imagery throughout his vast catalogue of poetry and lyrics. Romantically attached to his theological roots, Cohen was preoccupied with Jewish history for most of his life.
In ‘Dance Me to the End of Love’, one of his most subtle yet haunting reflections, Cohen disguised a harrowing Holocaust story as a nebulous, captivating lovesong. “That came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt,” Cohen revealed, discussing the 1984 Various Positions cut in 1000 Songs That Rock Your World.
“So, that music, ‘Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin,’ meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation,” he continued. “But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved so that the song – it’s not important that anybody knows the genesis of it because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity.”
While ‘Dance Me to the End of Love’ doesn’t explicitly detail the horrors of the Holocaust, the instrumental reference demonstrates Cohen’s ability to subtly infuse his art with historical consciousness and cultural heritage. Cohen often invited his audience to reflect on the profound impact of historical events and religion on the collective human experience, ubiquitously celebrating the enduring power of love.
Listen below to Leonard Cohen’s haunting ode to defiant love, ‘Dance Me to the End of Love’.
