Sinfonía para la ciudad de los muertos

In September 1941, Adolf Hitler's forces surrounded Leningrad, initiating one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history. More than a million inhabitants perished in slow agony during those two and a half years of bombing and famine. Survivors remembered the streets littered with frozen corpses. Desperate citizens burned books, furniture and wooden floors to keep warm. Hunger drove them to the point where they ate their pets and eventually each other to stay alive. Caught between the invading Nazi force and the Soviet government, Dmitri Shostakovich composed in the midst of the siege a piece designed to encourage and commemorate his fellow citizens: his Symphony No. 7, Leningrad. The score was copied onto microfilm that traversed the Middle East and the deserts of Africa on a secret mission to reach the United States, where the symphony was transcribed and performed, playing a surprising role in strengthening the ties of the Allies against the Axis powers.