“ASCEND” CD NOTES I was recently hired to score the documentary ‘3 1⁄2 years without a toothbrush’, which is the story of Walter Lachman who, as a child, was sent to a concentration camp. This documentary has, on so many levels, affected me. His story, told in such an honest, poignant, human way against a backdrop of images which have haunted me throughout this project and to this day and probably will remain with me the rest of my life. The one thing that kept coming to me during this project is, this is one man, Walter Lachman, this is his story. While the pictures around him are hundreds, thousands of dying, lifeless, dead bodies and each one has or had a story, a family. They loved, they were loved, and most important to remember....THEY LIVED. Ren Blood, who hired me for this project is an amazing woman. Her goal is to preserve Walter’s story, for his family, for history, for schools and to make sure that genocide is always taught in schools so that people do not forget. Walter’s story is of tolerance, healing, it is against man’s inhumanity to man. He has a very unique and lovely way of talking with people, especially children. The one thing that you will never forget him, is his smile. For that reason, I am calling this CD “ASCEND”. It is about living thru the darkness, walking thru hell, yet coming out of it with a heart that can still love, feel, ascend to beautiful things. I stand with Walter and with Ren and thank them for this opportunity which truly has affected me. I want to donate 20% of any earnings I make from this CD to Ren so she can share Walter’s story and fight against intolerance in whatever way she sees fit. I know she has devoted so much of herself to the making of this film and I believe in this work and would love to see her spread the word of intolerance wherever she can. Please check out her page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaltersStory?ref=br_tf Very quick rundown of the music on this CD: 1. The Road Ahead ­-This music is played in the beginning, when rights were being stripped away from the Jewish community. 2. Passion­ - This music surrounds Walter’s life in the beginning. The loss of his mother to sickness and his father, who was steadfast in believing that nothing bad would ever happen to them because he had served in WWI. He had said, they would take the last train out of Berlin before anything bad happened. Unfortunately, his father dies before before this happens and Walter is sent to live with his grandmother. 3. Road To Riga ­ - This is actually three cues together. During this time Walter talks about how, at the beginning, they went to Riga voluntarily. And once they were settled into homes which already had food, utensils and clothes, they started to wonder, what happened to all the people who used to live here? It is haunting, now, with history written, imagining how they must have felt as they began to put the pieces together in their minds. 4. Learning The Ropes ­ - After his grandmother’s death, Walter begins to fend for himself. Starving and scared, he learns how to fit in, to work, to eat, to survive. 5. Bergen­ Belsen Pt. 1 (Hope Realized) ­- At the end of the war, Walter finds himself in Bergen­ Belsen. At this point, they are skeletons, walking over dead bodies, drinking from water filled with dead bodies. Walter expresses at this point how one day, he looks up and sees 300 ­ 400 American planes floating overhead and he wonders, will I live long enough to get out of here? This scene is so emotional to me. I cry just listening to the music. I can’t imagine being in a place of such despair and having this glimmer of hope above you. 6. Bergen­ Belsen Pt. 3 (Trials) ­- This is where the SS guards of Bergen­ Belsen were being tried for their actions in the concentration camp. 7. Speechless ­- This was music used in the film as Walter meets his wife. His face lights up when he speaks of this time. 8. Ascend­ - This is not in the movie but encompasses the experience, for me. Ascending thru darkness! Thank you for listening! I can be contacted at cathleen.flynn.music@gmail.com