The Song of His Life

It was in Bergen-Belsen that Kraus acquired the nickname “Moishele der Zinger,” singing to fellow prisoners, “to make people smile, even if just for a few seconds”

Photos: Issie Scarowsky Kraus family archives

Moshe Kraus went from serving as the chazzan of great rabbanim to being the cantor of Bergen-Belsen, his voice a gift for saving lives — including his own. After the war, he and his wife traversed the globe helping Jews rebuild what was lost, and his long-awaited memoir not only tells of a life of extraordinary courage and deep humanity, it offers a panoramic view of destruction and renewal as it unfolded over four continents and nine decades.

C hazzan Moshe Shimon Kraus’s remarkable voice has afforded him a unique vantage point on Jewish life over the last century.

As a shtot chazzan (“city cantor”) in Eastern Europe before World War II he was privileged to sing before some of the greatest Torah luminaries of the day: Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky the Chofetz Chaim the Ahavas Yisrael of Vizhnitz and Rav Meir Shapiro to name a few. In Bergen-Belsen he managed to cheat death by singing for the Nazi camp commandant. After the war he helped broken survivors pick up what few pieces were left in Europe aided in boosting morale among those fighting to secure the fledgling State of Israel brought chizuk to Jews trapped behind the Iron Curtain and sojourned in South Africa and Mexico before winding up in Ottawa Canada.

Now 94 Chazzan Kraus recently published his memoir The Life of Moshele Der Zinger: How My Singing Saved My Life in which he details his journey including some of the darker moments he survived along the way. More than depicting an extraordinary life of personal courage and deep humanity the book offers a panoramic overview of Jewish communal life as it dramatically unfolded over four continents and nine decades.