Terezin Background

In the 1780s, Josef II, Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and an admirer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, honored his mother, Empress Maria-Theresa, by building a small fortress town in a pastoral area of Northwestern Bohemia, some sixty kilometers from Prague. Theresa's town - Theresienstadt (Terezin in Czech) - was intended to forstall any attempted Prussian invasion from the North. Approximately one square kilometer and surrounded by massive ramparts and a moat, the town consisted mainly of large buildings whose apartments housed soldiers, officers and their families. Terezin had a central park with gardens and large trees. For more than 150 years the town never had to exercise its defensive function. But several years after the German invasion of the Sudetenland and Prague a decision was taken which forever changed Terezin's image and its destiny. Adolf Eichmann's assistant, Reinhard Heydrich, proposed that the town could serve as a transit camp, a holding station for thousands of Czech and other European Jews en route to Auschwitz and other killing centers in the East. Thus some 140,000 Jews passed through Terezin between November 23, 1941, when the first transports arrived from Prague, and May 8, 1945, when the town and its ghetto were liberated by the Russian Army.

Self-administered by Jews, Terezin was unlike any other German camp. Horrendously overcrowded, rampant with disease and starvation, inevitable social tensions and summary executions, it also was the scene of an amazing and courageous cultural life. This activity spontaneously continued the cultural underground which had begun in Prague in 1939, following the implementation of the racist Nuremberg laws. Many inmates, physical and psychological conditions permitting, attended lectures, theatrical and musical performances. Terezin's population included an extraordinary number of highly-accomplished artists, writers, musicians, dancers, actors, academics and others, who found a ready and eager audience for their works and presentations.

Musical Life

In the field of music alone, one could choose to attend concerts of Jewish music, light music, jazz and cabaret, opera, oratorio, instrumental and vocal recitals, as well as performances of choral, chamber and orchestral works from the standard repertoire. A number of highly-respected composers were active in Terezin, among them Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Hans Krasa and Gideon Klein. The music written in the ghetto, often reflecting important contemporary trends, also illustrated the reality of imprisonment. To an audience that was "captive" in the most literal sense, the richness of musical life in Terezin was comparable to that of any large city of the period.

Terezin Music Memorial Project

The TMMP, under the patronage of Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic, was founded in 1987 by David Bloch, Associate Professor of Musicology at Tel-Aviv University. The project's aim is to promote awareness of and appreciation for the achievements and accomplishments of the Terezin musicians through concerts, recordings, lectures, research and publications. Pre-war music by composers who were in Terezin is as important to the TMMP as works they wrote in the ghetto. With David Bloch as artistic director, the project is producing the Terez?n Music Anthology, a series of nine CDs documenting the entire extant Terezin repertoire. Four CDs have been released to date: Vol. I (Viktor Ullmann), Vol. II (Gideon Klein), Vol. III (Hans Krasa) and Vol. IV (Al S'fod/Do Not Lament - Hebrew and Jewish Instrumental and Vocal Music). The recordings are issued by Koch International. The Terezin Music Memorial Project is also publishing some forty-five compositions from Terezin, including chamber, vocal and piano music.

Yad Vashem - Terezin Music Memorial Project Cooperation

Yad Vashem and TMMP have produced a number of concerts, among them Hans Krasa (1993), Four Czech-Jewish Composers - Ullmann, Haas, Krasa and Klein (1995), several programs as given in Terezin (Klein/Beethoven/Brahms string quartets and Schumann/ Ullmann/Brahms piano works) and other programs. Yad Vashem is also involved in the Terezin Music Publication Series, mentioned above, and the continuation of the Terezin Music Anthology.