The music of hope and resistance

Get The AJN Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

TEREZIN, a small garrison town built in 1780 by Emperor Franz-Josef II, lies peacefully among meadows and gardens, 38 miles northwest of Prague. To us, its German name is well known: Theresienstadt, one of the most infamous Nazi ghettos, a place where 148,000 people lived. Eighty-eight thousand passed through on their way to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other death and labour camps, while 33,000 died of disease and malnutrition in the camp. On May 8, 1945, the Russian army liberated 17,247 people on the verge of starvation.

Terez√≠n was the holding camp for Bohemian and Moravian Jews — proud, sophisticated communities who had existed in the Czech lands for more than 800 years, embracing full emancipation under the enlightened rule of President Tom√°≈° Masaryk’s First Czechoslovak Republic. Joining the Czech Jews in Terez√≠n were 57,000 ‘privileged’ German and Austrian Jews — the elderly, decorated war veterans, prominent Jewish intellectuals, community leaders and famous musicians.

In time, Jews from Holland, Luxembourg and Denmark arrived to add to the mix. The intensity of artistic ability that came to Terez√≠n was harnessed by the inmates, for the inmates, through the organisation of ‘leisure time activities’ — music, theatre, cabaret, sports, art classes, lectures by academic experts. The cream of Central European intellectual life, those who could not escape the Nazi talons did not sit idly by in this ghetto — they created, formed and breathed life into the most unique and amazing creations.

On July 25, I will be directing and performing in a concert being presented by the Jewish Museum of Australia that is inspired by the cultural life of Terez√≠n; it complements the museum’s current exhibition Theresienstadt: Drawn from the Inside, a series of intimate artworks by Paul Schwarz and Leo Lowit bequeathed to the museum in 1980 by Regina Schwarz. What makes the concert unique is that it is not just a presentation of the music created in Terez√≠n, but it provides a diverse journey into the musical lives of survivors, discussing the importance of music to maintaining hope, providing distraction and entertainment, offering an opportunity for spiritual resistance, as well as providing an outlet for processing what was happening to them at the time.

For the past four years, my doctoral dissertation has involved interviewing survivors of the Holocaust about musical experiences in ghettos and camps. My journey began 12 years ago, with survivors of Terez√≠n, who discussed the place of Brundib√°r — a children’s opera composed by Hans Krasa, a Czech Jew — in their hearts and minds. They referred me to other survivors — from soloists from the children’s opera all the way to the two most esteemed pianists in the camp, the 96-year-old Edith Steiner-Kraus (in Jerusalem) and the 104-year-old Alice Herz-Sommer. Two years after our interview, Alice is still playing piano three hours a day, living independently in London. Over the course of four years, 25 Terez√≠n survivors spoke to me of their incredible journeys in music in those years of hardship and trial, and their observations will colour our concert.

SO what was music in Terez√≠n? It was an entire world of creativity, from the Jazz of Coco Schumann and the Ghetto Swingers, to everyday pub songs and work songs. The first musical revues in 1941 were directed by the choral conductor Rafael Sch√§chter and the Czech cabaret artist, Karel ≈†venk; in time they were joined by German cabaret artists such as Kurt Gerron (co-star in the 1920s with Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel), Willi Rosen and others who had escaped Berlin to Holland in 1938 ¬†— sadly, not far enough away from Germany. Our concert will feature some of these cabaret and jazz works.

There were four orchestras, including a famous Terez√≠n string orchestra conducted by Karel Anƒçerl. Anƒçerl survived Auschwitz and other camps, and following liberation, rose to become conductor of the Czech Philharmonic until his escape to Toronto in 1968. The upcoming concert will feature a recorded performance by Anƒçerl’s orchestra, filmed as part of the 1944 propaganda film made by the Czech Aktualita company.

Music became an essential part of children’s pedagogy through the opera Brundib√°r, the musical play Brouƒçci (the Fireflies) and participation in the children’s choirs. Adults also formed choirs — all male, all female and mixed. Such choirs were devoted to Zionist or Socialist songs, others sang Yiddish lider (many of the residents singing the language of their grandparents for the first time) or Jewish liturgical works, and the larger choirs undertook the great oratorios of the repertoire. The King David School Chamber Choir will present excerpts of some of this choral repertoire, including a small section of Brundib√°r.

There were hundreds of chamber music recitals, from baroque and rococo repertoire, all the way to completely new music composed and performed in the ghetto by students of Jan√°ƒçek and Sch√∂nberg, and former members of the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Concert¬≠ge¬≠bouw (a concert hall in Amsterdam) and other orchestras. The brightest stars of new Czech composition — Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Hans Kr√°sa and Viktor Ullmann — all will be featured in our concert, performed by Anne Gilby, Eidit Golder and the A La Corda Quartet.

Music was not enough to help one survive though. If you were lucky enough to be in demand, then you could avoid resettlement (i.e. transport to Auschwitz), but by September 1944 this protection had evaporated and the vast majority of Terez√≠n’s musicians were deported and murdered in the months of September and October.

In my discussions with survivors from Terez√≠n here, in the UK, in Israel and the USA, I have learnt one very important fact: music was an aspect that preserved the humanity for many living in the appalling, conditions of the ghetto. Even if you weren’t a performer, music provided an outlet, be it escape, hope, anger, and helped you process and adapt to the conditions. It played a vital role for some in keeping their humanity alive, and it was the preservation of that humanity that they carried throughout such terrible times, clinging to it, in order to remain sane.

The concert being presented is not just some missing link, providing the continuity in Jewish artistry and creativity in middle Europe. Nor is it a dry academic exercise, presenting an odd set of compositions that survived beyond all probability. Instead, it brings back to life the humanity that existed in Terezín, against all odds. A humanity that we rarely think of when considering life in the camps and ghettos, but a humanity that must have existed in order for our parents and grandparents, our uncles, aunts and cousins to have survived, to be able to build new lives and contribute so much of their own, rich musical culture to a place 12,000 miles away from the land of their birth.

This concert will bring back to life the voices of the composers of Terezín. For the first time in Australia, the Terezín polka will sound, forgotten by all except those interned in the camp, but notated by the sister of the composer who migrated to Tasmania after the war. The heritage of Czech Jewry lives in our Australian musical experience. Rudolf Pekarek, one-time conductor of the Prague Radio Orchestra migrated to Australia with his wife after the war and became the first conductor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and later the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Coco Schumann moved to Melbourne in 1950, where for four years he played successfully with Leo Rosner and his Gypsy Band. Karel Ančerl toured the Czech Philharmonic to Australia in the 1970s, to great acclaim. Hundreds of Czech survivors made their home in Australia, ordinary people who brought with them a love and devotion to music and the arts. This concert is dedicated to them and their memory and also as a legacy to those who died, whose music carries a unique voice for future generations to hear.

Joseph Toltz is a professional singer and academic.

Music of Hope & Resistance: A Tribute to the Musicians of Terezín is on Sunday 25 July, 4pm at Temple Beth Israel. For bookings contact the Jewish Museum of Australia 03 8534 3600

JOSEPH TOLTZ