In the midst of terror: Wilhelm Furtwängler conducts the finale of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in Germany on 20 April 1942 in celebration of the birthday of Adolf Hitler:

Said Furtwängler:

The concern that my art was misused for propaganda had to yield to the concern that German music be given to the German people by its own musicians. Does Thomas Mann really believe that in “the Germany of Himmler” one should not be permitted to play Beethoven? Could he not realize, that people never needed more to hear Beethoven and his message of freedom and human love, than these Germans, who had to live under Himmler’s terror? I do not regret having stayed with them.