Freizeitgestaltung—Vocal Music in Theresienstadt, 1942–1944

Freizeitgestaltung—Vocal Music in Theresienstadt, 1942–1944 Ruth Frenk erezin, not far from Prague, was built as a fortified town at the end of the eighteenth century. In June 1940 the Nazis occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and turned Terezin (called Theresienstadt in German) into a concentration camp. Theresienstadt was not Tonly a Gestapo prison, but also a transit camp, known by its official Nazi name “Ghetto for the Aged.” Theresienstadt has become synonymous with the Nazi regime’s greatest propaganda effort and blatant deceit. It was portrayed as a place of music and art, a “model camp” where foreign dignitaries and Red Cross workers were Ruth Frenk shown the cultural activities. Indeed, virtually all of Prague’s Jewish cultural elite were sent there. After the infamous 1942 Wannsee Conference, these Jewish artists, musicians, and actors were joined by German, Austrian, and Dutch men and women from the theatrical and literary worlds, who were torn out of their everyday lives and transported to the prison camp. Initially, cultural life in Theresienstadt led an underground existence, as all such activities were banned and liable to be punished; however, when in 1941 the camp was declared a “Jewish settlement,” everything that could be termed culture was tolerated. The Freizeitgestaltung (Administration for Leisure Activities), a Jewish run organization instituted by the Nazi SS com- mand in Theresienstadt in 1941, permitted prisoners to produce a cultural program for their “free time” (Freizeit) and perform for inmates as well as for Nazi officers. In the early months of 1942, these activities were made fully legi timate, and used for propaganda purposes. Artists confined at Theresien stadt were allowed to entertain their fellow victims until they—or the artists themselves—were taken to the gas chambers. As a result of starvation and forced labor, the struggle to survive was accompanied by a vast amount of varied creative work produced by the camp inmates, who were even allowed to perform music otherwise banned by the Nazis. In spite of forced labor and life threatening enslavement, prisoners at Theresienstadt enjoyed an unprecedented degree of cultural freedom, always under the shadow of death. This article will present a portrait of some of the composers who worked Journal of Singing, November/December 2013 in Theresienstadt and the music they composed, with an emphasis on vocal Volume 70, No. 2, pp. 147–155 Copyright © 2013 music. Much of this music has been printed and is easily available. Performers National Association of Teachers of Singing and students alike will be rewarded by exploring this rich repertoire. November/December 2013 147 Ruth Frenk Karel Berman (1919–1995) was the only one of the to work collaboratively with a Jewish composer. Haas “Theresienstadt Composers” to survive the Shoah decided to write the libretto himself, finally eliminating (Holocaust) and become famous as a Czech opera the name of the author and of the leading character. singer, composer, and opera director. In 1943, Berman Sarlatán premiered on April 2, 1938 in Brno and won was deported to Theresienstadt, where he composed considerable success.2 Poupata (Buds), five songs for bass and piano to texts Haas was deported to Theresienstadt in 1941. Prior by contemporary Czech poets. When he was later sent to his arrest he had divorced his wife Soňa so that she to Auschwitz, he claimed he was an ordinary laborer, and their young daughter would not suffer a similar fate. thus escaping the fate of artists and musicians. After The divorce and deportation sent him into depression, the war he returned to Prague, and in 1953 joined the and it was Gideon Klein (who is discussed later in this Prague National Theater. article) who worked to get him to begin composing Musical life was already in full swing when Karel again. Haas wrote at least eight compositions in the Berman arrived at the Theresienstadt concentration camp, only few of which have survived. The last work camp. Gone were the days of modest beginnings in he completed in Theresienstadt remains his best known basements and attics, when artists sang and played composition, Four Songs on Chinese Poetry, the first line their instruments, often without any accompaniment, of which reads: “Your homeland is there, far away in the or maybe just an accordion. Formal recitals, concerts of distance.” This is followed by the St. Wenceslas Chorale, chamber music, and even entire operas in concert form a lyric leitmotif that provides all four songs with an and with piano accompaniment were performed daily. underlying sense of structure, which the composer used Berman, twenty-four at the time, had already accumu- as a musical symbol representing his Czech fatherland.3 lated a lot of experience, not only as a singer and con- ductor, but also as a composer, and was able to immerse Hans Krása (1899–1944) studied piano and violin as himself into the busy musical life of Theresienstadt. a child and continued studying composition at the Inmates of the camp became used to seeing him on German Music Academy in Prague.4 After graduat- the makeshift podiums in recitals and operas. He also ing, he became a vocal coach at the Neuen Deutschen conducted his own girls choir and played piano accom- Theater. Krása felt an affinity with French music, paniments for other singers. especially with the group of composers known as Les Six, whose musical inspiration was Eric Satie.5 Among Pavel Haas (1899–1944) began his formal musical education in Brno at the age of fourteen. He studied for his works that have survived from Theresienstadt are two years in the master class of composer Leoš Janáček an overture for small orchestra, a number of chamber (1854–1928), who was Haas’s most influential teacher. music pieces, and his Three Songs after Rimbaud, for Haas, in turn, proved to be Janáček’s best student. baritone, clarinet, viola, and piano, set in Vítìzslav In the following two decades, Haas wrote more than Nezval’s translation. fifty works; however, he was very self-critical and gave The last work Krása completed before he was arrested 6 only eighteen of them opus numbers. While working by the Nazis in 1942 was Brundibár, a children’s opera. in his father’s business, he wrote music that included The libretto was written by Adolf Hoffmeister (1902– symphonic and choral works, lieder, chamber music, 1973), a Czech writer who had escaped to France in 1939 scores for cinema and theater, and the opera Šarlatán. and later went to the USA. He became famous during Composer Lubimir Peduzzi, Haas’s biographer, wrote, his exile because of the story of Brundibár. The original “Haas didn’t aspire for very dramatic aims in his version of the opera was written in 1938 as an entry opera—first and foremost, the work should be enter- for a competition by the Czech Ministry of Education. taining.”1 For a long time Haas had been looking for a Krása was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto where libretto for a modern, interesting, and popular opera. he reworked Brundibár so that it could be performed In 1934 he came upon Josef Winkler’s novel Doctor by the camp inmates, under the conditions prevailing Eisenbart, but by then a German author was not allowed in the camp. 148 Journal of Singing Freizeitgestaltung—Vocal Music in Theresienstadt, 1942–1944 Brundibár was performed fifty-five times in Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet Theresienstadt and features in the infamous propaganda (Terezin: A Documentary Film of the Jewish Resettle- film made for the Red Cross in 1944. It is an innocent ment). The film was directed by Jewish prisoner Kurt account of the victory of good over evil, performed in Gerron (a director, cabaret performer, and actor who a setting that many regarded as part of the ultimate appeared with Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel), evil. Anicka and Pepicek’s mother is ill, and the doc- and was meant to show how well the Jews lived under tor prescribes milk, which the children cannot afford. the “benevolent” protection of the Third Reich. After They watch Brundibar, an organ grinder, and try, like the film was completed, most of the cast and even the him, to sing for a living, but their voices are too weak. filmmaker himself were deported to Auschwitz. The film Small animals and neighborhood children come along was not released at the time, but was edited into pieces to help the desperate siblings, and together they sing and only segments of it have remained. a lullaby and collect enough money to buy milk. The Like the other young Theresienstadt composers, Krása selfish Brundibar wants to steal their money, but the was very much influenced by famous teachers, among children, cats, dogs, and sparrows manage to prevent them Alexander Zemlinsky, the French composer this and defeat him. Albert Roussel, Alban Berg, and Ferrucio Busoni. All Having been performed by ill parents and weak chil- these young musicians did not survive the Nazi killing dren adds a tragic poignancy to the opera. Of the fifteen machine, and we can only wonder and lament the loss thousand children deported through Theresienstadt to of life cut short and of music never composed. Auschwitz, only one hundred survived. Brundibár had all the makings of a successful and Gideon Klein (1919–1945) became one of the ma jor modern children’s opera: the plot, wonderful set designs composers in the camp, where he wrote many arrange- by Frantisek Zelenka, costumes, choreography, and most ments for the Raphael Schächter vocal group.7 Unfor- importantly musical hits. Everyone in Theresienstadt tunately, only one composition has survived. Klein also knew the melodies.

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