Holocaust Survivors' Network
Introductory Note to the Music of the Holocaust Period
by
Dr. Susan Eischeid
Valdosta State University
Department of Music
1500 North Patterson Street
Valdosta, GA 31698
USA
The most
formalized and complex musical activity took place in
Theresienstadt, located in Terezin in the Czech Republic.
Several well-known musicians were sent to Theresienstadt
including Karel Ancerl (who survived to become the
conductor of the Toronto Symphony), Viktor Ullmann (a
student of Schoenberg), Pavel Haas, and Gideon Klein.
Ullmann is perhaps the most famous composer from this
group, and like the others, continued composing while in
Theresienstadt. One of the most significant compositions
to be written during the Holocaust was Ullmann's original
opera, "Der Kaiser von Atlantis." In this work, the
composer paraphrases the events which are taking place in
the world and in the war. Sadly, Ullmann was deported to
Poland and gassed in Auschwitz in October of 1944, along
with a large number of the other musicians at
Theresienstadt. Another
well-known work from the period is Olivier Messiaen's
"Quartet for the End of Time," written and premiered
while the composer was incarcerated in Stalag VIIIA, a
Nazi labor camp. A large number
of musicians who were not directly impacted by the
Holocaust wrote music which reflected the period and
events which took place. For example, Russian composer
Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 13, "Babi
Yar," in commemoration of the people who were murdered at
Babi Yar. .
Music
of the Holocaust period encompasses a wide variety of
compositions and performers. Most of the concentration
and death camps had some sort of organized musical
activity --everything from ad hoc chamber groups to fully
formed orchestras, bands, choruses, opera productions and
jazz groups. Additionally, most of the ghettos in the
Nazi system had some musical activity, which was usually
determined by the size of the community and the resources
available. There is also a large body of folk song
literature from many smaller communities
andghettos.
Viktor
Ullmann
Pavel
Haas
Gideon
Klein
S e l e c t e d
L
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