Biography
Joseph Wulf (1912–1974) was a German-Jewish historian, writer and Holocaust survivor. Born in Chemnitz and raised in Kraków, he trained as an agronomist and received a rabbinical education before the Nazi invasion of Poland altered his life.
Imprisoned in the Auschwitz III–Monowitz subcamp from 1943, Wulf composed the Yiddish song 'Sunbeams' ('Zunenshtraln') while in captivity. He survived the camp and later settled in West Germany, where he became a leading documentarian of Nazi crimes, authoring numerous books on the Third Reich and advocating for a Holocaust memorial at the Wannsee Conference villa.
Wulf's own voice recording introducing and performing 'Sunbeams', made in the late 1960s, features in Jonathan Glazer's film The Zone of Interest (2023), alongside a performance of the melody on piano.
