TEREZÍN MUSIC FOUNDATION

Honoring the legacy • Inspiring new voices

Mark Ludwig, Executive Director

[email protected] • 857-222-8262

On this date 78 years ago in Terezín

June 23, 1944:

SS Commandant Karl Rahm and SS officers from Prague and Berlin guided Dr. Maurice Rossel of the International Red Cross Committee and two Danish delegates on a tightly scheduled and carefully staged tour of Terezín.

The visitors took in all the fakery the SS had prepared for them: false shop facades; a temporary nursery, playground, and makeshift school; street signs pointing to a nonexistent post office and a bank; and more, adorned with tulips brought in from occupied Holland. Above is the concert pavilion that was part of the beautification project, in a souvenir drawing made by prisoner Joseph Spier and in a still from the ensuing propaganda film. Below is a sample of the fake currency.

The despair, hunger, illness, and death throughout Terezín were not on view. Rossel’s official report stated:

Immediately on entering the Ghetto, we were convinced that its population did not suffer from undernourishment . . . The children’s homes are particularly well and sensibly furnished . . . There are several orchestras in the Ghetto . . . We heard a rehearsal of Verdi’s requiem . . . We must say we were astonished to find out that the Ghetto was a community leading an almost normal existence.

Leo Beck, a prisoner and esteemed rabbi from Berlin, wrote:

They appeared to be completely taken in by the false front put up for their benefit . . . Perhaps they knew the real conditions — but it looked as if they did not want to know the truth. The effect on our morale was devastating. We felt forgotten and forsaken.

We are honored to tell and remember the truth of Terezín and the artists imprisoned there — artists who were forced to play into the Nazi propaganda machine and who were soon after murdered in the camps. TMF publications, concerts, and Holocaust and genocide education prorgams are dedicated to teaching the sustaining power of art and the dangers of hatred and lies.

The story of the Red Cross visit and the performances and fates of dozens of Terezín artists — band leaders like Martin Roman (above, guiding the Ghetto Swingers in a still from the Nazi film), opera singers like Hilde Aronson-Lindt and Karel Berman, cabaret artists like Karel Svenk, conductors like Karl Ancerl, composers like Gideon Klein, and virtuosi like Alice Herz-Sommer — are described in great detail in the new TMF book, Our Will to Live, by Mark Ludwig.

The first English translation of the concert critiques written in Terezín by composer and prisoner Viktor Ullmann • 200+ stunning, rarely seen artworks by imprisoned artists: posters, programs, stage sets, and more • Music tracks: Vintage and modern music by survivors and contemporary masters • 30 years in the making, with introductory chapters and detailed annotations by Mark Ludwig

Published January 11, 2022 by Steidl Verlag. 328 pp. 200+ color illus. Clothbound. $45

Rabbi David Wolpe: “An act of creation from chaos. Here is art, music, humor, precision, speculation, indignation, love — the panoply of human expression dredged from darkness. A wonder.” 

< Watch a short video about the meaning and making of Our Will to Live.

“We honor people whose fates have been lost to history.

We can and must keep their legacy alive.”

—Secretary Madeleine Albright, accepting our 2020 Terezín Legacy Award

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Photos:

1. Edgar Krasa teaching a TMF Holocaust and genocide education program.
2. Yo-Yo Ma and Terezín survivor George Horner enjoy a laugh backstage before their performance at our 2013 Symphony Hall Gala Concert © Michael J. Lutch.