Freizeitgestaltung—Vocal Music in Theresienstadt, 1942–1944

Ruth Frenk

erezin, not far from , 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 legi­timate, and used for propaganda purposes. Artists confined at Theresien­stadt 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.

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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 (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 (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 , 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 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.

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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, , 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 ma­jor 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. As late as the 1960s, people were performed as solo pianist in at least fifteen recitals, and fond of saying that if you whistled a tune from the opera he participated in many chamber music performances. as you walked down the street, chances were that some- He composed a well known lullaby, “Wiegenlied,” one would come up to you, someone who had been in in 1930 for the HaMatateh Theater. Immanuel Harussi Theresienstadt. wrote the words, which allude to the Arab assaults on The two versions of the opera differ primarily in the Jewish settlements in the Valley of Jezereel in the 1920s. instrumentation. The opera was intended for flute, two The melody is attributed to Rabbi Shalom Charitov of clarinets, trumpet, piano, string sections I and II of the Habad Hassidic movement in Czarist Russia. It violins and cellos, large and small drums and cymbals. was also sung outside Mandatory Palestine, and Klein Krása had to write a new score in Theresienstadt, in arranged it for voice and piano. The song was sung in consideration of the available instruments, and the result Theresienstadt in its original Hebrew.8 was a chamber orchestra with fewer instruments. The color of the sound is enlivened by a guitar and an accor- Ilse Weber (1903–1944) was a notable Czech writer of dion on stage. Of course, the piano remains the principal children’s fiction.9 As a child, she learned to sing and instrument. The Theresienstadt version included other play the guitar, lute, mandolin, and balalaika, but never changes, apart from the different instrumentation. Krása seemed to consider music a career. She married Willi omitted the second song of the children, the chorus “The Weber in 1939, and they settled in Prague, where she Trees Grow Up,” as well as the music during the pursuit wrote for children’s periodicals and became a producer of Brundibar, and composed the interlude “Serenade,” for Czech Radio. Following the Nazi occupation of which he built up from the material of the Act I Finale, Czechoslovakia in 1939, the Webers managed to get their for the new version (Example 1). oldest son Hanuš safely to Sweden on a Kindertransport,10 The propaganda film known as The Führer Gives a and he survived the war in Sweden, and remained there, Village to the Jews is more correctly called Theresienstadt: now living in retirement in Stockholm. In 2008 he par-

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Example 1. Hans Krása, excerpt from Brundibár; used with permission of Verlag Bote & Bock. ticipated in a program, produced in Berlin, in memory Jewish descent, had converted to Roman Catholicism of his mother, and he also published a book about her. prior to Viktor’s birth. His father, Maximilian, was Ilse: A Love Story without a Happy Ending.11 able to pursue a professional career as an officer in the Ilse Weber and Willi Weber had been confined to army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; he was pro- the Jewish ghetto in Prague, and were deported to moted to colonel and knighted during World War 1. Theresienstadt in February, 1942. Ilse worked as a night In 1909, young Ullmann enrolled in a grammar school nurse in the camp’s children’s infirmary, doing every- (Gymnasium) in . When he finished school, thing she could for the young patients without the aid Ullmann immediately volunteered for military service, of medication that was denied to Jewish prisoners. She after which he began studying law at Vienna University. wrote around sixty poems during her imprisonment At the same time, the beginning of 1918, he was also and set many of them to music, employing deceptively accepted to Schönberg’s composition seminar, and with simple tunes and imagery to describe the horror of her Schönberg as his teacher, he studied the theory of form, surroundings. During performances, she accompanied counterpoint, and orchestration. Despite being an excel- herself on the guitar. The songs, in particular “Wiegala,” lent pianist, Ullman did not seek a career as a soloist. 12 have been frequently recorded (Example 2). In 1923 he began performing a successful series of Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944) was born in Teschen his works, beginning with the Sieben Lieder mit Klavier (today Cieszyn in Poland). His parents, who were of and extending into the early 1930s with the Sieben

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Example 2. Ilse Weber, “Wiegala”; used with permission of Verlag Bote & Bock.

Serenaden. Because of his interest in , the fact that he never succeeded in finding a commercial he spent two years selling books in , but was music publisher during his lifetime.15 Ullmann’s Lieder forced to flee in 1933. He returned to Prague as a music der Tröstung (Songs of Consolation) were awaiting their teacher and journalist. world premiere in Theresienstadt. By then Ullmann had Viktor Ullmann was deported to Theresienstadt on embraced anthroposophy, which became a strong force September 8, 1942. In Theresienstadt he was a piano in his life; indeed, the texts for the Lieder der Tröstung accompanist, organized concerts (Collegium Musicum— were written by , who was ’s Studio for New Music), and wrote reviews of musical successor as the head of the Anthroposophic Society in events.13 Ullmann wrote that “Terezin has served to Dornach, Switzerland. enhance, not to impede my musical activities. Our TheLieder der Tröstung reveal that Ullmann was not endeavor with respect to art was commensurate with prepared to follow in the steps of Schönberg and his our will to live.”14 students toward atonality and twelve-tone composition. Lieder make up the single largest category of Ull­ Although he was strongly influenced by the circle of the mann’s compositions that have reached us, this despite , Ullmann developed his own

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Example 3. Viktor Ullmann, “Herbst Lied”; used with permission of Schott Music. harmonic system, which, like that of Alexander Scriabin, by Peter Kien,16 and the other Die Weise von Liebe und was derived from the harmonic series between notes Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke (The Lay of the Love 8–14 of the natural harmonic series. and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke). Ullmann finished the “Herbst Lied,“ after a poem by draws heavily on German the Austrian composer (1887–1914), in music literature concerned with the theme of death. January 1943, but we do not know whether he included Ullmann reached far back into German history by end- it in the Lieder der Tröstung cycle (Example 3). “Herbst ing his opera with a version of the Lutheran chorale Lied“ has also survived in a score for string instruments. “Ein fester Burg,” set to the words “Komm Tod, du In Theresienstadt Ullmann became aware of his unser werter Gast” (Example 5). In another passage (in Jewish identity. Not everyone who was deported to the the first scene), Ullmann clearly intended to provoke camp was a practicing Jew—being of Jewish descent was the Nazis with a grotesque distortion of “Deutschland reason enough to be imprisoned. Many of those sent to über Alles,” when the drummer girl announces the Theresienstadt had not even known they had Jewish roots. Emperor’s declaration of total war. Although rehearsed Now, for the first time in his life, Ullmann wrote music to in Theresienstadt, the opera premiered years later, in texts in Yiddish, among them Brezelinka, opus 53. These Amsterdam in 1975. delightful songs are perhaps the most often performed The narrative of Ullmann’s life ends with Die Weise works composed by Ullmann; they are easier for younger von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke, a lyric singers to master and the audience loves them. One such narration for recitation and piano written in 1906 and example is “Beryozkele” (Birch Tree; Example 4). composed by Ullmann in 1944. The story was inspired by Two of the works that Ullmann wrote in Theresien­ a tradition in poet ’s family. Written stadt carry overtones of the events around him. One is in 1889, the Cornet is the story of the first love of a young Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis, or officer during the Turkish wars in Hungary and about The Refusal of Death), a chamber opera with a libretto his death on the battlefield. The narrative, of unusual

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Example 4. Viktor Ullmann, “Beryozkele”; used with permission of Schott Music. lyric rhythm, was written as a monologue and contains Ullmann identified with the Cornet and tried to save typical Rilke elements such as loneliness and death, his “Flag,” although he was fully aware that both he and alongside a strong erotic element. The small novel soon it would be destroyed. One does not only hear the horses gained popularity, especially after it appeared in 1912 trample the army in 1663 in the staccatos of the first the first of the Insel-Bücherei series, and was carried in part, but also the rattle of the deportation trains from many a military knapsack in both world wars. Theresienstadt to the Auschwitz extermination camp. Ullmann first thought of the Cornet as an orchestral Not only classical music was composed and per- melodrama. He added the comment “for reader and formed in Theresienstadt. The hunger and deprivation orchestra or piano” only later. The latter version of his were also accompanied by the sounds of German and work was performed several times in Theresienstadt Czech cabaret songs. Leading songwriters and perform- until the end of September 1944. Ullmann chose twelve ers of Berlin and Prague—among them Karel Svenk, Leo extracts in a sensitive condensation of the action. Why and Adolph Strauss, Hans Hofer, Bobby John, Trude did Viktor Ullmann, shortly before his deportation to Popper, and Martin Roman—were brought together in Auschwitz and his certain death, compose Rilke’s Cornet Theresienstadt. The Nazis used them to write satirical, in Theresienstadt in 1944? According to some survi- political songs in the style of the famous Berlin Cabaret vors, he saw it as a call to his fellow prisoners to resist. of the 1930s.17 Jazz and swing, performed by the Ghetto However, another explanation may be that Ullmann felt Swingers, also formed an ironic accompaniment to the a call to support the “Flag.” In his case his “Flag” was sufferings; however, this material is beyond the scope his beloved German culture, a culture that actually had of this article, and waits to be brought to the attention vanished in Nazi Germany. of music lovers and professionals.

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Example 5. Viktor Ullmann, excerpt from Der Kaiser von Atlantis; used with permission of Schott Music.

I have written this article hoping to interest my Amer­ 2. The only recording of this work so far is in theEntartete ican colleagues in a repertoire that is rich in music and Musik series, with Israel Yinon conducting the Prague history. The songs and vocal works of the Theresienstadt Philharmonic Choir. composers can be integrated into teaching so that they 3. A number of Haas’s vocal works were published by Boosey will be sung on American stages in programs consist- and Hawkes (http://www.boosey.com). Six Songs in Folk Tone for soprano and piano (1918–19), orchestrated ing also of Schubert, Mahler, and Charles Ives. This 1938; Three Songs for soprano and piano, words by Josef will not only enrich and expand the world of vocal Svatopluk Machar, op. 2 (1919/20); Chinese Songs for alto performers, but will serve as an antidote to the horrors and piano, words by Kao Shi, Tsui Hao, and Thu Fu, op. of the Holocaust, a tribute to the memory of composers 4 (1921); Fata Morgana for piano quintet with tenor solo, who fell victim to it, and an affirmation of the undying words by R. Tagore, op. 6 (1923); The Chosen One for tenor, power of music. flute, horn, violin, and piano, poems by Jiří Wolker, op.8 (1927); Seven Songs in Folk Style for high voice and piano, NOTES words by František Čelakovský, op.18 (1940); Four Songs on Chinese Poetry: 1. “I Heard the Wild Geese,” 2. “In the 1. Lubomír Peduzzi, Pavel Haas. Leben und Werk (Neumünster, Bamboo Grove,” 3. “The Moon Is Far from Home,” 4. “A Germany: Bockel). Haas’s biographer is acclaimed for his Sleepless Night,” poems by Wei Jing-wu, Wang-wei, Tchang studies of Jewish music in the Theresienstadt ghetto and in Tiou-ling, and Han I (Theresienstadt, 1944);The Charlatan, the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. opera in three acts, libretto by the composer, op. 14 (1938).

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4. Blanka Cervinkova, Hans Krása, Leben und Werk. Verdrängte 14. Hans-Günther Adler: Theresienstadt 1941–1945. Das Antlitz Musik, vol. 19 (Saarbrücker: Pfau, 2005). einer Zwangsgemeinschaft, 2nd edition (Tübingen: J. C. B. 5. Members of the Groupe des Six: Darius Milhaud, Arthur Mohr, 1960), 661. Honegger, Francis Poulenc, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, and 15. Sämtliche Lieder Ullmann (Complete Songs of Ullmann), Germaine Tailleferre. The group was formed in 1918 by the Viktor Bauni, Axel—Hoesch, Christian (Publisher). Voice author Jean Cocteau, and it musical founder was Eric Satie. and Piano in German, English, French.: ED 8199; http:// 6. Krása’s vocal works published by , Vienna www.schott-musik.de (http://www.universaledition.com). (Five) Lieder, op. 4 for 16. The young artist and poet Kien produced other significant middle voice and piano (1926) [UE8394], to texts by Rainer poetry and plays in addition to the libretto of the opera. Kien Maria Rilke, Gaius Valerius Catullus, Christian Morgenstern; and his wife were sent to Auschwitz in the final transport in Three Songs for baritone, clarinet, viola, and cello (1943) October, 1944. He died, at age 25, from illness soon after his to texts by Arthur Rimbaud with Czech translation by V. arrival. Nezval; (Four) Orchesterlieder, op. 1 (1920), to texts by 17. A selection of these songs can be heard on Der letzte Christian Morgenstern; Verlobung im Traum (Betrothal in Schmetterling, Ruth Frenk, mezzosopran, Karin Strehlow, a Dream), an opera in two acts (1933) [UE30199], after the piano (1192 Erasmus Produkties, DDD, WVH 037). novel Uncle’s Dream by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; Brundibar, an opera for children (1938–1943), after a text by Adolf Hoffmeister. Ruth Frenk is a voice teacher in Konstanz, Germany. She was born in 7. Raphael Schächter (1905–1945) was a Czech composer, Rotterdam, Netherlands and graduated from Manhattan School of Music pianist, and conductor. He was deported to Theresienstadt in 1972. In Germany she pursued a career singing repertoire of Jewish in 1941. He conducted a male and later mixed choir, music, songs of Theresienstadt and of Kurt Weil and other Jewish com- rehearsed and performed operas, the new works created posers. For many years she was on the faculty of the American Institute in Theresienstadt, and also became famous for his Verdi of Musical Studies, Graz (Austria), taught at the Instituto Guiseppe Verdi Requiem performed in Theresienstadt (1942). in Asti (Italy) and at the Institute for History, Music and Memory Beit 8. Like the Leaden Sky, Mira Zakai, alto, Jonathan Zak, piano Theresienstadt, Kibbutz Givat Haim (Israel). She has lectured on the vocal (Tel Aviv, Israel: Beth Hatefutsoth, BTR 9902). music of Theresienstadt at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance of the Hebrew University and in many cities in Germany. She has taught 9. Ilse Weber’s Theresienstadt poetry was collected and pub- master classes in Germany and Riga, Latvia. Since 1996 she has been lished as Inside These Walls, Sorrow Lives in 1991 and Ilse on the Board of the German Voice Teachers Association, BDG. Weber, wann wohl das Leid ein Ende hat (When Will the Suffering Come to an End). The songs were collected by the German historian Ulrike Migdal and published by Bote & Bock Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt, songs for voice and Voice and breath are like two dancers who eagerly piano, collected by Winfried Radeke (Mainz: Bote & Bock, approach each other, unite,— and as one being 2008). express rhythm, melody and mood of music. 10. Kindertransport (also Refugee Children Movement or RCM) is the rescue mission of Jewish children that took place Each knows what the other is thinking, feeling nine months prior to the outbreak of World War II. About and doing. 10,000 children were sent to England, Switzerland, Spain, and Sweden. Each assists the other to cause sound to glide, to 11. Hanvi Weber, Ilse: A Love Story Without a Happy Ending run, to leap, to pause. (Stockholm: Författares Bokmaskin, 2004). 12. Terezín—Theresienstadt, Carlo Sigmund Taube, Ilse Weber, Each must be expert and efficient, or one will Viktor Ullmann; sung by Anne Sofie von Otter and Christian have to carry the other as a dead-weight. Gerhaher (CD DDD 0289 477 6546 2 GH). 13. http://www.bockelverlag.de Viktor Ullmann: 26 Kritiken Each must act as a counterpoise to the other to über musikalische Veranstaltungen in Theresienstadt. keep up unbroken continuity of motion. Published with commentary by Ingo Schultz, with an Brown, Vocal Wisdom, 143. Introduction by Thomas Mandl, 2nd corrected edition, the Verdrängte Musik series, 3.

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