Due to its physical and auditory volume, a piano is not an ordinary piece of furniture. Whether an upright in a modest living room or a grand in a wealthy apartment, the instrument takes up space. It is not uncommon for a household's daily life to revolve around it, sometimes more so than around the family table. So, when it disappears, and when the person who played it vanishes into the mists of Auschwitz, a part of the home's soul is lost. Yet the instrument's notes continue to resonate in memories. They become the ghost, the mute reminder of a life gone, murdered.

Caroline Piketty recounts this in her new book Harmonies volées ("Stolen Harmonies"), to be published in French on May 15. The historian and archivist is a specialist in the plundering of possessions from French Jews. Here, she focuses on the pianos seized by the Nazis during the Occupation. Nearly 8,000 of these instruments were stolen and transferred, many to Germany, as was the case with artworks, under the direction of a commando dedicated to instruments, the Sonderstab Musik.

In a twist of cruel irony, these instruments were handled by prisoners from the Drancy internment camp in the Paris suburbs, with some who recognized their belongings. Dutch historian Willem de Vries documented the journey of these stolen instruments in his book Commando Musik. Comment les nazis ont spolié l'Europe musicale ("Commando Musik: How the Nazis Plundered Europe's Music"). In April 2022, a symposium at the Philharmonie de Paris also addressed this subject.

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