Theresienstadt (Terezín)
The prisoner community almost exclusively of Jews – a large proportion of Jewish artists and intellectuals (camp’s function as an “old age ghetto” and “show camp.”)
For propaganda purposes, the SS welcomed cultural life
Musical instruments allowed
Broad spectrum of musical as well as other cultural and artistic activities
Several choirs, cabaret groups, classical and popular orchestras, musical criticism, music instruction, and a “Studio for Modern Music” created and led by Viktor Ullmann.
Classical symphonic and chamber works, oratorios, religious and national songs, and operas
Popular music and swing at the coffee house
New pieces were composed and premiered – their music or lyrics reflected camp’s life
The stars were freed from work – received small benefits (until Fall 1944 they were to some extent even protected from deportation to Auschwitz)
December 1943 – “beautification of the city” to present Theresienstadt to the world as a model example of a Jewish settlement
Summer of 1944 – a visiting commission of the Red Cross: Verdi’s Requiem, children’s opera Brundibár by Krása, Jazz coming from the “Ghetto Swingers.”
August and September 1944: the propaganda film Theresienstadt: A Documentary Film of the Jewish Settlement Area
9/28 – 10/28, 1944 around 18,400 people were deported to Auschwitz, among them the composers Pavel Haas, Hans Krása, Gideon Klein, and Viktor Ullmann
Cultural life was rebuilt for propaganda reasons by the remaining inmates and newly-arrived prisoners
The mission of music – educational, cultural-political, and psychological; served to promote survival and signified hope
33,500 people died there; 84,000 were sent from Theresienstadt to death camps, primarily to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Freedom for music making was much greater than in most other camps
Cultural activities – “Division for Recreation,” a subdivision of the “Jewish Self-Government” - a type of “Jewish Council”
Was more a ghetto than a concentration camp: set up in an already existing city and was led by a Jewish Council that had greater freedom to shape camp life than the “Prisoner Self-Governments” of the concentration camps