Play something wonderful for us,You Jews Love Your
Music, Here in Terezin, Where nothing grows but numbers
Musicians are Never Expecting Exile: Music is Exile
The Music of
Terezin were a fellowship of musicians unique in history. Nearly all had
been exiled from positions of prominence in
Berlin, Munich and other cultural centers of Germany. Among them were such
as Hans Krasa, Viktor Ullman and Pavel Haas, whose music was already
The Musicians of Terezin
recognized. One of the reasons many musicians were sent to Terezin was
that they were visible: Terezin was a 'showcase' for the Nazis---while the
suffering there was great and most were eventually deported to Auschwitz
or its sub-camps, the Nazis kept portions of Terezin for public show: when
dignitaries visited, the musicians played, when the Red Cross visited to
determine conditions, the musicians were called to perform: it was the one
place in Europe where Jewish Music was still freely heard (for the most
part.) Terezin turned to its music and art to survive the brutality of the
Nazi incarceration: there was Chamber and Orchestra Music at Terezin,
piano recitals, compositions and quintets.
A Children's Choir/Theatre performed over 50 performances of
"Brundibar" an opera about Children trying to usurp a local 'ogre'. It
held a veiled fist against the tyranny which had brought them there. The
Children were not alone in their metaphors of resistance: 'The Emperor of
Atlantis' provided a relief of resistance in adult performances, and a
musical/opera about bicycles was a raised fist of freedom as well. As the
notoriety of the disappearance of the more prominent musicians
disappeared, most of the Musicians were deported to Auschwitz and smaller
labor/extermination camps such as furstengrube. Used occasionally for
Music in the camps as slaves departed for labor, or on the whim of Nazi
officials, Music gave no refuge from the gas chambers: many of the
musicians of Terezin and their families were killed at Auschwitz. A few
survived the war and went on to become bright and even famous musicians in
America and Europe: their music still lives on. The Terezin Chamber
Orchestra in Boston and other groups keep the music written in Terezin
alive.
