Response
Restoration and Restitution
Wilhelm Rettich
Wilhelm Rettich was a German composer, conductor and teacher. He fled to the Netherlands in 1933 and survived the Nazi occupation by hiding in a cellar.
Orchestral Music
Response
Brundibár
Brundibár is a children's opera written in 1938 and composed by Hans Krása with lyrics by Adolf Hoffmeister. Its premiere in Terezín was on 23 September 1943.
Response
Camp System
An overview of the types of internment camps within the camp system of the Third Reich related to major phases of the Nazi regime.
Resistance & Exile
Anthems for France
Political regimes use hymns as symbols of their values and aspirations. While France was divided by the war, it adopted three anthems between north and south.
Resistance & Exile
Berthold Goldschmidt
Emigre composer Berthold Goldschmidt (1903-1996) died in London at the age of 93. He had lived at the same ground floor flat since fleeing Germany.
Politics & Propaganda
Classical Music Radio in Wartime Britain
For better or worse, BBC radio was the dominant voice of Britain throughout WWII for which classical music was an important and revealing feature.
Politics & Propaganda
Jews and Music in Fascist Italy
The modern nation of Italy had existed for barely more than sixty years when, in October 1922, Benito Mussolini became the country’s prime minister.
Memory
Music amongst Displaced Persons
The Displaced Persons’ camps of occupied post-war Europe were home to a diverse range of music used as a means to chronicle what they had experienced.
Memory
Music in the Bergen-Belsen DP-camp
British forces established a DP camp in Belsen, which existed until 1950. Concerts, theatre, dance, folk music and other genres of entertainment flourished.
Name
Artist
Category
Time
Evgeny Evtushenko (1962)
Music after the Holocaust
Orchestral Music
16:10
Lyrics
1940.
On my birthday
The Germans walked-walked into Holland
Germans invaded Hungary
I was in 2nd grade
I had a teacher
A very tall man, his head was completely plastered smooth
He said, "Black Crows-
Black Crows invaded our country many years ago"
And he pointed right at me
No more school
You must go away
And she said, "Quick, go!"
And he said, "Don't breathe"
Into the cattle wagons
And for four days and four nights
And then we went through…
The idea for the piece comes from my childhood. [Due to my parent’s divorce], I travelled back and forth by train frequently between New York and Los Angeles from 1939 to 1942. […] While these trips were exciting and romantic at the time, I now look back and think that, if I had been in Europe during this period, as a Jew I would have had to ride on very different trains. With this in mind, I wanted to make a piece that would accurately reflect the whole situation.
Jüdische Chronik ♫ - Excerpt from the CD Jüdische Chronik, courtesy of Edel Classics (www.edel.com).
Music after the Holocaust
Orchestral Music
06:39
(1947)
Music after the Holocaust
Orchestral Music
07:21