A moving new book tells the story of a group of imprisoned artists and musicians founded in Terezín, a Nazi concentration camp
40 miles northwest of Prague, Czech Republic, where the Ohře and the Elbe rivers meet, lies Terezín; a small town home to just under 3,000 residents. Despite its relative insignificance on a map, the former military fortress bears a heavy history, with stories of life and death.
The Nazis embarked on a propaganda campaign to push the narrative that Terezín was a place of harmony and luxury. But in reality, conditions were bleak: people were starving, and its overcrowded walls were ravaged with disease. 33,000 people died there, with over 70,000 more transported east to their deaths in the gas chambers. But, despite everything, it was a place where Ullmann helped foster a resolute, functional cultural community.
Viktor Ullmann’s prominence as a musician likely freed him from hard labour. With no financial worries inside the camp, Ullman devoted his entire time there to music – performing, composing, criticising. Before he was sent to his death in Auschwitz, Ullmann placed all of the work he made during his time in the camp into the hands of the Terezín ghetto librarian.
“All of them had this indomitable spirit to create,” says composer David Post. “They had to write music as much as they had to eat, drink, or sleep. Creation for them was a necessity, to keep sane, to keep alive, to feel as though they had some type of meaning in this absurd situation.”is a dramatic, playful composition that jumps between hyperactivity and melancholic stillness. Karel Švenk’sis a sweet, drifting piece that sounds like it’s been made for sleeping children.
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