Casimir Oberfeld

Casimir Oberfeld
Born	16 November 1903 Lowicz, Poland, Russian Empire
Died	January 1945 Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Poland
Other names	Kazimierz Oberfeld
Occupation	Composer
Years active	1930–1940 (film)

Casimir Oberfeld (1903–1945) was a Jewish Polish-born French composer. He worked on many film scores and also wrote popular songs of the 1920s and 1930s. Following France's invasion by Germany in 1940 during the Second World War, Oberfeld faced increasing persecution. Having taken shelter in Italian-occupied Nice he was arrested when the area was taken over by the Germans. He was sent to Auschwitz where he died in January 1945.

The music of the patriotic song of Nazi-collaborationist Vichy France "Maréchal, nous voilà !", while credited to André Montagnard and Charles Courtioux, was in fact plagiarised from a work by Oberfeld^[1] called "La Margoton du bataillon." ^[2]

Selected filmography

• The Man in Evening Clothes (1931)
• The Triangle of Fire (1932)
• The Regiment's Champion (1932)
• The Blaireau Case (1932)
• The Uncle from Peking (1934)
• Rigolboche (1936)
• A Legionnaire (1936)
• You Can't Fool Antoinette (1936)
• Excursion Train (1936)
• Street of Shadows (1937)
• Heartbeat (1938)
• Barnabé (1938)
• Tricoche and Cacolet (1938)
• The Five Cents of Lavarede (1939)
• Monsieur Hector (1940)

References

1. Mould p.59
2. (French) Nathalie Dompnier, « Entre La Marseillaise et Maréchal, nous voilà ! quel hymne pour le régime de Vichy ? », dans Myriam Chimènes (dir.), La vie musicale sous Vichy, Éditions Complexe – IRPMF-CNRS, coll. « Histoire du temps présent », 2001, p. 71

Bibliography

• Mould, Michael. The Routledge Dictionary of Cultural References in Modern French. Taylor & Francis, 2011.

External links

• Casimir Oberfeld at the Internet Movie Database