Nit:
Albricht renounces love to forge the ring. Wotan can then safely “steal from the thief” without making the same sacrifice.
I know someone who really hates Pink Floyd, and I think I have an idea why (although I never asked her to confirm.) Let’s say they played Pink Floyd at the concentration camps.
If Israel had a state-run classic rock station would they be overreacting to never play the Floyd? Of course they would.
Just like I am overreacting in my visceral dislike for the veil for a somewhat personal reason, despite it being a valid fashion choice for some people. But if someone came into my home in a veil I would let them in despite my intense hatred for it.
Well, they would have listened to him for about three weeks, then rolled right on into Stravinsky. 
That’s misreading my point, either intentionally or not. Is ‘Wagner was antisemitic’ a valid argument for boycotting his music? If one feels the answer is yes, then consistency should apply, and no more mazurkas shall be heard.
Was only Wagner played in concentration camps? Again, I’m arguing that he is being singled out. I’m not saying I think I’d have been friends with the guy. But avoiding him, or defending those who do, should be for reasons which aren’t circuitously chosen so that they only apply to him.
Edit: nice one, OneCentStamp 
You were putting Chopin in juxtaposition with Beethoven as a great German. I was just pointing out that Chopin was not German, anti-semite or not. Indeed, he would have been considered less-than-human by the Nazis. His nationalistic Slavic-influenced music, like the aforementioned mazurkas, wouldn’t have endeared him to the Nazis either.
I didn’t intend nationality to be part of the Chopin argument, and apologise if it came across like that. My point is:
Wagner was antisemitic - but so was Chopin
…and completely separately
Wagner was held in high esteem by Hitler - but so was Beethoven
It’s a single point, not multiple ones, in that the separate accusations against Wagner should be just that.
I haven’t read every Holocaust memoir out there, but from the ones that I have read, I don’t know that it was played much at all. Most Wagner pieces require a pretty large orchestra and a lot of instruments. The relatively small Jewish ensembles in the camps seem to have played mostly light airs, military marches, and popular songs.
I presumed by ‘being played’, it was meant that recordings were broadcast across a loudspeaker system (which I also presume was in place at the camps). Kind of like The Shawshank Redemption, but very much not.
Apart from that one time. . Mind you, it seemed to be very controversial.
That wasn’t a performance of the opera, only of the prelude.
That is my understanding. There is no mention of Wagner in Laurence Rees’ Auschwitz, however.
You’re no doubt thinking of the much argued about footnote to The Case of Wagner in which Nietzsche, some time after Wagner’s death, mused:
The significance of this passage and the corresponding parts of Wagner’s autobiography have been controversially pored over for the last century. One can speculate about what either of them believed about the matter, but the one thing that’s reasonably clear amidst all the arguments is that - regardless of whether he was the father - there’s no evidence that Ludwig Geyer was even partially Jewish.
Is there mention of any recorded music being played over a loudspeaker? Did the camps have sound systems that were capable of doing that?
I did find a cite for Wagner’s favorite conductor being Jewish , but nothing of music in the camps. Rees is more concerned with the mechanics of death than public address systems. For example, Auschwitz was the only camp to tattoo prisoners. My nephew asked a survivor at a swimming pool in Connecticut why she wrote on herself. I did not hear her answer.
Let me tell you about my mother.
Neitehr Beethoven nor Chopin wrote operas about the master race, about destruction being necessary and good, about the triumph of the German soldier over even the ancient gods, about renouncing love. (Is Alberich meant as a stereotypical Jew?)
The issue of whether an artist’s politics should influence our appreciation of the art is not an easy one. The issue persists to this day. Left-wingers often don’t like John Wayne westerns or WWII movies, not because they’re not good movies, but because of the politics implicitly underlying them. Right-wingers denounce Jane Fonda’s acting career because of her politics. For many Israelis, rightly or wrongly, Wagner symbolizes Naziism.
To take the last first, I couldn’t help but wonder if the Neibelungens in the film Die Nibelungen were intended to be Jews. I don’t know if Fritz Lang was an anti semite. The film was made in 1924.
The Ring isn’t about a master race, it’s about men versus the rule and laws of the gods. There are no German soldiers in the opera. Alberich who renounces love to forge the ring is a bad guy, although he only becomes evil when tormented by the Rhine maidens. The Destruction of the gods, which by Gotterdammerung Wotan will allow, indeed desires, paves the way not for NSDAP, but for men.
How many times have you listened to the Ring Cycle or read the libretos?
Indeed, and while I enjoy the operas I do not blame them for not playing Wagner in Israel.
Certainly not. Hitler wasn’t a particularly committed vegetarian; at various times in his life, he adopted a vegetarian diet, but never as a permanent lifestyle. The vegetarian movement was suppressed under Nazi rule, with the Vegetarier-Bund Deutschlands (the leading German vegetarian organization) being forced to disband, and vegetarian magazines being forced to cease publication. It’s my understanding that this wasn’t out of any particular hostility to vegetarianism by the Nazis, but rather out of fear of any independent political organization existing.
The Nazis didn’t have to parade Beethoven’s work. It was already well-known and loved. You can’t just choose to unlove a piece like the Ninth Symphony. And there was no need to. What he had done was a great achievement not just for “the German race,” but for the human race.
You say that Chopin’s anti-semitism gets ignored. Should there be commentary on every recording? That’s a possibility. Certainly there should be mention in every biography including on film. All of that would still reach a limited audience. I have loved Chopin’s work since I was a child. I had no idea until I read your post that he was an anti-semite. Now I will commence ignoring his long past anti-semitism. It is dead and buried with him. Maybe it is his music that redeems him. I do not know.
I do know that if the Israelis ever decided not to listen to him for any reason at all, I would not insist that they should do otherwise.
I do not care for Wagner or his music. But I have cherished friends who do. It is very masculine opera, I think. If I liked it, I would listen. I have no interest in insisting what anyone else’s feelings about it should be.
The film Playing for Time was about a small orchestra made up of prisoners who played for the entertainment of Nazi officials. I believe that it was based on a true story. It starred Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Alexander.
The Nazis didn’t have to parade Wagner’s work. It was already well-known and loved. You can’t just choose to unlove a piece like the Ring. And there was no need to. What he had done was a great achievement not just for “the German race,” but for the human race.