CABARET "If you could see her " & Tomorrow belongs to me

Two songs from the Musical CABARET against Anti -semitism then and now. NEVER AGAIN IS NOW ! "If You Could See Her" is a satirical number from the musical Cabaret (1966) The Emcee performs a dance with a costumed gorilla, pleading with the audience to see past its appearance and recognize her human-like virtues, ending with a shocking lyric that forces the audience to confront the casual antisemitism of 1930s Berlin The Context and Meaning Set in the seedy, decadent Kit Kat Klub during the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, the song serves as dark social satire Throughout the number, the Emcee highlights the gorilla's "clever" traits (she doesn't drink, she's smart, and she is musical), suggesting they are wonderfully compatible. The humor is meant to disarm the audience and build a twisted sense of empathy. However, the song subverts expectations in its final, whispered line: "If you could see her through my eyes, she wouldn't look “Jewish at all." Written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, both Jewish, the song caused quite a stir during its run on Broadway. "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" is a chilling fictional folk song from the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret. Irony defines its background: it was written by two Jewish musicians, John Kander and Fred Ebb, as a warning about the seductive, terrifying rise of Nazism in Weimar Germany. In the original theatrical and film narratives, the song starts innocently, praising the natural beauty of the German landscape. Sung by an innocent-looking blonde boy, who is eventually revealed to be a member of the Hitler Youth, the tone escalates into a militant, Nationalistic Anthem. As the crowd gradually stands and joins in, the song exposes how easily ordinary people can be swept up in fascist ideology. Kander and Ebb specifically designed the music as a pastiche—an authentic-sounding, catchy tune reminiscent of traditional German folk and marching songs.The song's deep historical irony has led to a complicated modern legacy: Theatrical Warnings: Within the context of the anti-fascist narrative of Cabaret, the song is meant to make the audience feel uneasy, serving as a dark counterpoint to the escapist, oblivious entertainment of the Kit Kat Club. We can clearly see that this dark chapter of our history is returning with Neao nazi parties on the rise and extreme islamic terror all fueled by new anti simitism.