- What happened to classical musicians during World War II?<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
Where is Terez\u00edn?<\/h2>
Terez\u00edn (Theresienstadt in German) is a garrison town built in the 1780s by Hapsburg Emperor Joseph II, which lies about 60km northwest of Prague. Built on a grid pattern round a church and central square, it is enclosed by fortified red walls. In Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, from November 1941 until the Soviet liberation in May 1945, it became a ghetto and concentration camp for the Jews of central Europe.<\/p>
The grounds of The Jewish Cemetery in Terezin, Czech Republic. (Photo by Craig Stennett\/Getty Images) – Craig Stennett\/Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure> What were conditions like in Terez\u00edn?<\/h2>
Terez\u00edn may not have been an extermination camp, but its conditions were appalling. Up to 60,000 people were crammed into a town built for 6,000, one in four of the inmates died and transport left regularly for Auschwitz.<\/p>
However, the town was administered – under Nazi supervision – by the Jews themselves. And as a form of damage limitation they organised an incredible cultural life which included lectures, theatre, cabaret, music and opera. At first it took place in secret with performances in cellars and attics with pianist and conductor Rafael Sch\u00e4chter, who was one of the main instigators. Then, when cultural activities became officially permitted, the Jewish-run Freizeitgestaltung<\/i> (Free-time administration) organised regular concerts and even produced programmes and artistic posters for the events.<\/p>
- Jewish composers suppressed by the Nazis: seven great voices we’re starting to hear again<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
‘There was no competitiveness, no hierarchy’<\/h2>
\u2018People needed to live some kind of normal life, under abnormal conditions, because it gave them hope and made them forget their situation,\u2019 remembered actress Zdenka Fantlov\u00e1, who was 18 when she arrived in Terez\u00edn. Working in the kitchens alongside the conductor Karel An\u010derl (who survived to become principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic), in her free time she got involved in the cabaret.<\/p>
\u2018Terez\u00edn was really ideal for the arts. There was no competitiveness, no hierarchy. Everybody gave their best out of sheer enthusiasm. But of course there were transports constantly being assembled \u2013 going to the east. We didn\u2019t know what it meant or what was in store for us; only the Germans knew. So they let us get on with it and we were just dancing under the gallows.\u2019<\/p>
‘Play to us and make us well again’<\/h2>
The ghetto was home to an incredible pool of talent \u2013 directors, designers, artists, actors, musicians and composers \u2013 though it\u2019s not the case, as is often mistakenly thought, that they were specially selected to go to Terez\u00edn. Helga Weissov\u00e1-Ho\u0161kov\u00e1 was just 12 when she arrived. As a very talented young artist her father told her simply to \u2018draw what you see\u2019 and her pictures, with their childish naivety, are some of the most moving from Terez\u00edn.<\/p>
One depicts the string quartet<\/a><\/strong> led by Egon Lede\u010d, an associate leader of the Czech Philharmonic. \u2018I remember them playing when we were all cramped together in the barracks,\u2019 she says. \u2018My father wrote a poem and dedicated it to Lede\u010d: \u201cOn behalf of us all, dear friends\/ Play to us and make us well again\/ We must live each moment to the full\/ If we don\u2019t die like cattle.\u201d\u2019<\/p>
![\"Terezin](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/01\/Untitled-design-2025-01-27T122908.024.jpg\")
Dormitories at the Terez\u00edn ghetto. Pic: Oscar Gonzalez\/NurPhoto via Getty Images – Oscar Gonzalez\/NurPhoto via Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure> Ironically, Terez\u00edn was, culturally speaking, probably the freest place in occupied Europe, with inmates left to get on with their performances unhindered. Outside, music by Jewish composers, jazz<\/a><\/strong>, and what the Nazis called entartete Musik<\/i> (degenerate music) were forbidden. So what was going on in Terez\u00edn was astonishing: performances of new, \u2018degenerate\u2019 pieces by Jewish composers, as well as jazz and satirical cabaret.<\/p>
A thinly disguised Hitler caricature<\/h2>
The leading figure of the political cabaret was Karel \u0160venk, writing both words and music. The Terez\u00edn March<\/i> he composed for his first cabaret in 1941 became so popular it was repeated in all subsequent shows. The Last Cyclist<\/i>, his most powerful show, <\/i>was a political satire on the Nazi\u2019s racial policies. \u2018In The Last Cyclist<\/i> the Kaiser had to pacify the people who were undergoing severe shortages,\u2019 remembers Fantlov\u00e1. \u2018So he blamed the cyclists. They were the cause of all the trouble because they were internationally connected and so they had to get rid of them.\u2019<\/p>
- Jewish composers suppressed by the Nazis: seven great voices we’re starting to hear again<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>